BPSD 
.A  7.5 
\S13 


(     dec  9  1913 

THE  V  . 


PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

A   History  of  the  Propagation  of  the 

Muslim  Faith 


BY 

T.   W.    ARNOLD    M.A.   CLE. 

PROFESSOR  OF   ARABIC,    UNIVERSITY  OF   LONDON,    UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

i9x3 


TO 

SIR   THEODORE   MORISON,    K.C.I.E. 

TO   WHOM    THE   FIRST   EDITION    OWES    ITS    EXISTENCE 
THIS    SECOND    EDITION    IS   DEDICATED 
IN   TOKEN    OF   LONG    FRIENDSHIP 


PREFACE   TO  THE    FIRST   EDITION 

It  is  with  considerable  diffidence  that  I  publish  these 
pages;  the  subject  with  which  they  deal  is  so  vast,  and  I 
have  had  to  prosecute  it  under  circumstances  so  disad- 
vantageous, that  I  can  hope  but  for  small  measure  of 
success.  When  I  may  be  better  equipped  for  the  task, 
and  after  further  study  has  enabled  me  to  fill  up  the  gaps  1 
left  in  the  present  work,  I  hope  to  make  it  a  more  worthy 
contribution  to  this  neglected  department  of  Muhammadan 
history;  and  to  this  end  I  shall  be  deeply  grateful  for  the 
criticisms  and  corrections  of  any  scholars  who  may  deign 
to  notice  the  book.  To  such  I  would  say  in  the  words  of 
St.  Augustine  :  "  Qui  haec  legens  dicit,  intelligo  quidem  quid 
dictum  sit,  sed  non  vere  dictum  est;  asserat  ut  placet  sen- 
tentiam  suam,  et  redarguat  meam,  si  potest.  Quod  si  cum 
caritate  et  veritate  fecerit,  mihique  etiam  (si  in  hac  vita 
maneo)  cognoscendum  facere  curaverit,  uberrimum  fructum 
laboris  huius  mei  cepero."  2 

As  I  can  neither  claim  to  be  an  authority  nor  a  specialist 
on  any  of  the  periods  of  history  dealt  with  in  this  book,  and 
as  many  of  the  events  referred  to  therein  have  become  matter 
for  controversy,  I  have  given  full  references  to  the  sources 
consulted ;  and  here  I  have  thought  it  better  to  err  on  the 
side  of  excess  rather  than  that  of  defect.  I  have  myself 
suffered  so  much  inconvenience  and  wasted  so  much  time 
in  hunting  up  references  to  books  indicated  in  some  obscure 
or  unintelligible  manner,  that  I  would  desire  to  spare  others 
a  similar  annoyance;  and  while  to  the  general  reader  I 
may  appear  guilty  of  pedantry,  I  may  perchance  save  trouble 
to  some  scholar  who  wishes  to  test  the  accuracy  of  a  state- 
ment or  pursue  any  part  of  the  subject  further. 

The  scheme  adopted  in  this  book  for  the  transliteration 
of  Arabic  words  is  that  laid  down  by  the  Transliteration 
Committee  of  the  Tenth  International  Congress  of  Oriental- 
ists, held  at  Geneva  in  1894,  with  the  exception  that  the 
last  letter  of  the  article  is  assimilated  to  the  so-called  solar 

1  E.g.  The  spread  of  Islam  in  Sicily  and  the  missionary  labours  of  the 
numerous  Muslim  saints. 

2  De  Trinitate,  i.  5.     (Migne,  torn,  xlii,  p.  823.) 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

letters.  In  the  case  of  geographical  names  this  scheme 
has  not  been  so  rigidly  applied — in  many  instances  because 
I  could  not  discover  the  original  Arabic  form  of  the  word, 
in  others  (e.  g.  Mecca,  Medina),  because  usage  has  almost 
created  for  them  a  prescriptive  title. 

Though  this  work  is  confessedly,  as  explained  in  the 
Introduction,  a  record  of  missionary  efforts  and  not  a  history 
of  persecutions,1  I  have  endeavoured  to  be  strictly  impartial 
and  to  conform  to  the  ideal  laid  down  by  the  Christian 
historian  2  who  chronicled  the  successes  of  the  Ottomans 
and  the  fall  of  Constantinople  :  ovxe  irpoQ  x^PLV  °^xe  irpde 
(fidovov,  aW  ovde  irpoq  /jliooq  i)  /cat  irpoq  evvoiav  owyypd^eiv 
Xpecov  ioxt  xdv  ovyypd(povxa}  dXX,'  loxopiag  fiovov  %dpw  teal  xov 
firj  XrjOrjg  PvOqj  7rapado0fjvai,  rjv  6  xpovog  olde  yevvdv,  xtjv 
loxoplav. 

I  desire  to  thank  Her  Excellency  the  Princess  Barberini  ; 
His  Excellency  the  Prince  Chigi;  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Paul 
Goethals,  Archbishop  of  Calcutta;  the  Right  Rev.  Fr. 
Francis  Pesci,  Bishop  of  Allahabad ;  the  Rev.  S.  S.  Allnutt, 
of  the  Cambridge  Mission,  Dehli;  the  Trustees  of  Dr. 
Williams's  Library,  Gordon  Square,  London,  for  the  liberal 
use  they  have  allowed  me  of  their  respective  libraries. 

I  am  under  an  especial  debt  of  gratitude  to  James 
Kennedy,  Esq.,  late  of  the  Bengal  Civil  Service,  who  has 
never  ceased  to  take  a  kindly  interest  in  my  book,  though 
it  has  almost  exemplified  the  Horatian  precept,  Nonum 
prematur  in  annum;  to  his  profound  scholarship  and  wide 
reading  I  have  been  indebted  for  much  information  that 
would  otherwise  have  remained  unknown  to  me,  nor  do  I 
owe  less  to  the  stimulus  of  his  enthusiastic  love  of  learning 
and  his  helpful  sympathy.  I  am  also  under  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  kindness  of  Conte  Ugo  Balzani,  but  for 
whose  assistance  certain  parts  of  my  work  would  have  been 
impossible  to  me.  To  the  late  Professor  Robertson  Smith 
I  am  indebted  for  valuable  suggestions  as  to  the  lines  of 
study  on  which  the  history  of  the  North  African  Church 
and  the  condition  of  the  Christians  under  Muslim  rule, 
should  be  worked  out ;  the  profound  regret  which  all  Semitic 
scholars  feel  at  his  loss  is  to  me  intensified  by  the  thought 
that  this  is  the  only  acknowledgment  I  am  able  to  make 
of  his  generous  help  and  encouragement. 

1  Accordingly  the  reader  will  find  no  account  of  the  recent  history  of 
Armenia  or  Crete,  or  indeed  of  any  part  of  the  empire  of  the  Turks  during 
the  present  century — a  period  singularly  barren  of  missionary  enterprise 
on  their  part. 

2  Phrantzes,  p.  5. 


PREFACE 


IX 


I  desire  also  to  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  Sir 
Sayyid  Ahmad  Khan  Bahadur,  K.C.S.L,  LL.D. ;  to  my 
learned  friend  and  colleague,  Shamsu-1  'Ulama.'  Mawlawi 
Muhammad  Shibli  Nu'mani,  who  has  assisted  me  most 
generously  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  knowledge  of  early 
Muhammadan  history;  and  to  my  former  pupil,  Mawlawi 
Bahadur  'AH,  M.A. 

Lastly,  and  above  all,  must  I  thank  my  dear  wife,  but 
for  whom  this  work  would  never  have  emerged  out  of  a 
chaos  of  incoherent  materials,  and  whose  sympathy  and 
approval  are  the  best  reward  of  my  labours. 

AHgarh,  i8g6. 


PREFACE   TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION 

The  first  edition  of  this  book  having  been  out  of  print 
for  several  years  and  frequent  inquiries  having  been  made 
for  copies,  this  new  edition  has  been  prepared  and  an  effort 
has  been  made  to  revise  the  work  in  the  light  of  the  fresh 
materials  that  have  accumulated  during  the  last  sixteen 
years;  but  I  can  make  no  claim  to  have  made  myself 
acquainted  with  the  whole  of  the  vast  literature  on  the 
subject,  in  upwards  of  ten  different  languages,  which  has 
been  published  during  this  interval.  The  growing  interest 
in  Islam  and  the  various  branches  of  study  connected  with 
it,  may  be  estimated  from  the  fact  that  since  1906  five 
periodicals  have  made  their  appearance  devoted  to  investi- 
gations cognate  to  the  subject-matter  of  the  present  work, 
viz.  Revue  du  Monde  Musulman,  publiee  par  La  Mission 
Scientinque  du  Maroc  (Paris,  1906-  ) ;  Der  Islam,  Zeit- 
schrift  fur  Geschichte  und  Kultur  des  islamischen  Orients 
(Strassburg,  1910-  ) ;  The  Moslem  World,  a  quarterly 
review  of  current  events,  literature,  and  thought  among 
Mohammedans,  and  the  progress  of  Christian  Missions 
in  Moslem  lands  (London,  1911-  ) ;  Mir  Islama  (St. 
Petersburg,  1912-  ) ;  and  Die  Welt  des  Islams,  Zeitschrift 
der  deutschen  Gesellschaft  fur  Islamkunde  (Berlin,  1913-  ). 
The  Christian  missionary  societies  are  also  now  devoting 
increased  attention  to  the  subject  of  Muslim  missionary 
activity  and  accordingly  it  takes  up  a  proportionately  larger 
place  in  their  publications  than  before. 

This  second  edition  would  have  been  completed  several 
years  ago  but  for  the  illiberal  policy  which  closes  the  Reading 
Room  of  the  British  Museum  at  7  o'clock  and  has  thus 
made  it  practically  inaccessible  to  me  except  on  Saturdays.1 
I  therefore  desire  to  express  my  grateful  thanks  to  those 
friends  who  have  facilitated  my  labours  by  the  loan  of 
books  from  the  Libraries  of  the  University  of  Leiden  and 
the   University   of   Utrecht    (through   the   kind   offices   of 

1  The  student  of  the  literature  of  Science  or  of  the  Fine  Arts  finds  the 
libraries  at  South  Kensington  open  till  10  o'clock  on  three  evenings  every 
week,  but  the  one  library  in  this  country  that  aims  at  any  completeness 
is  available  only  to  such  students  as  are  at  leisure  during  the  day-time. 

xi 


xii  PREFACE 

Professor  Wensinck),  and  the  Ecole  des  Langues  Orientales 
Vivantes,  Paris ; — to  Mr.  J.  A.  Oldham,  editor  of  The  Inter- 
national Review  of  Missions,  I  am  indebted  for  the  loan 
of  volumes  of  the  Allgemeine  Missions-Zeitschrift,  a  set 
of  which  I  have  been  unable  to  find  in  London ;  my  thanks 
are  specially  due  to  Dr.  F.  W.  Thomas,  who  has  allowed  me 
to  study  for  lengthy  periods  (along  with  other  books  from 
the  India  Office  Library)  the  monumental  Annali  dell' 
Islam  by  Leone  Caetani,  Principe  di  Teano, — a  work  of 
inestimable  value  for  the  early  history  of  Islam,  but  unfor- 
tunately placed  out  of  the  reach  of  the  average  scholar  by 
reason  of  its  great  cost. 

I  am  also  much  indebted  for  several  valuable  indications 
to  those  scholars  who  reviewed  the  book  when  it  first 
appeared, — above  all,  to  Professor  Goldziher,  whose  sym- 
pathetic interest  in  this  work  has  encouraged  me  to 
continue  it. 

Lo?idon,  1913. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 


PAGE 


A  missionary  religion  defined.  Islam  a  missionary  religion;  its 
extent.  The  Qur'an  enjoins  preaching  and  persuasion,  and 
forbids  violence  and  force  in  the  conversion  of  unbelievers. 
The  present  work  a  history  of  missions,  not  of  persecutions       .         i 

CHAPTER   II. 

STUDY  OF  THE  LIFE  OF   MUHAMMAD   CONSIDERED   AS   A 

PREACHER   OF   ISLAM. 

Muhammad  the  type  of  the  Muslim  missionary.  Account  of  his 
early  efforts  at  propagating  Islam,  and  of  the  conversions  made 
in  Mecca  before  the  Hijrah.  Persecution  of  the  converts,  and 
migration  to  Medina.  Condition  of  the  Muslims  in  Medina  : 
beginning  of  the  national  life  of  Islam.  Islam  offered  (a)  to  the 
Arabs,  (£)  to  the  whole  world.  Islam  declared  in  the  Qur'an  to 
be  a  universal  religion, — as  being  the  primitive  faith  delivered 
to  Abraham.  Muhammad  as  the  founder  of  a  political  organisa- 
tion. The  spread'of  Islam  and  the  efforts  made  to  convert  the 
Arabs  after  the  Hijrah.  The  ideals  of  Islam  and  those  of 
Pre-Islamic  Arabia  contrasted ri 

CHAPTER    III. 

THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   AMONG  THE   CHRISTIAN   NATIONS  OF 

WESTERN   ASIA. 

The  Arab  conquests  and  expansion  of  the  Arab  race  after  the  death 
of  Muhammad.  Conversion  of  Christian  Bedouins.  Causes  of 
the  early  successes  of  the  Muslims.  Toleration  extended  to 
those  who  remained  Christian.— The  settled  population  of  the 
towns  :  failure  of  Heraclius's  attempt  to  reconcile  the  contend- 
ing Christian  sects.  The  Arab  conquest  of  Syria  and  Palestine  : 
their  toleration  :  the  Ordinance  of  'Umar  :  jizyah  paid  in  return 
for  protection  and  in  lieu  of  military  service.  Condition  of 
the  Christians  under  Muslim  rule  :  they  occupy  high  posts, 
build  new  churches  :  revival  in  the  Nestorian  Church.  Causes 
of  their  conversion  to  Islam  :  revolt  against  Byzantine  ecclesi- 
asticism  :  influence  of  rationalistic  thought :  imposing  character 
of  Muslim  civilisation.  Persecutions  suffered  by  the  Christians. 
Proselytising  efforts.  Details  of  conversion  to  Islam.— Account 
of  conversions   from    among   the  Crusaders.— The  Armenian 

and  Georgian  Churches 45 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG   THE  CHRISTIAN    NATIONS  OF 

AFRICA. 


PAGE 


Egypt :  conquered  by  the  Arabs,  who  are  welcomed  by  the  Copts 
as  their  deliverers  from  Byzantine  rule.  Condition  of  the 
Copts  under  the  Muslims.  Corruption  and  negligence  of  the 
clergy  lead  to  conversions  to  Islam. — Nubia  :  relations  with 
Muhammadan  powers  :  gradual  decay  of  the  Christian  faith. 
— Abyssinia :  the  Arabs  on  the  sea-board  :  missionary  efforts 
in  the  fourteenth  century  :  invasion  of  Ahmad  Gran :  con- 
versions to  Islam :  progress  of  Islam  in  recent  years. — 
Northern  Africa :  extent  of  Christianity  in  North  Africa  in  the 
seventh  century  :  the  Christians  are  said  to  have  been  forcibly 
converted :  reasons  for  thinking  that  this  statement  is  not  true : 
toleration  enjoyed  by  the  Christians  :  gradual  disappearance  of 
the  Christian  Church 102 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM  AMONG   THE  CHRISTIANS   OF  SPAIN. 

Christianity  in  Spain  before  the  Muslim  conquest :  miserable  con- 
dition of  the  Jews  and  the  slaves.  Early  converts  to  Islam. 
Corruption  of  the  clergy.  Toleration  of  the  Arabs,  and  influence 
of  their  civilisation  on  the  Christians,  who  study  Arabic  and 
adopt  Arab  dress  and  manners.  Causes  of  conversion  to  Islam. 
The  voluntary  martyrs  of  Cordova.     Extent  of  the  conversions     131 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE  CHRISTIAN   NATIONS   IN 
EUROPE  UNDER  THE  TURKS. 

Relations  of  the  Turks  to  their  Christian  subjects  during  the  first 
two  centuries  of  their  rule  :  toleration  extended  to  the  Greek 
Church  by  Muhammad  II  :  the  benefits  of  Ottoman  rule  :  its 
disadvantages,  the  tribute-children,  the  capitation-tax,  tyranny 
of  individuals.  Forced  conversion  rare.  Proselytising  efforts 
made  by  the  Turks.  Circumstances  that  favoured  the  spread  of 
Islam  :  degraded  condition  of  the  Greek  Church  :  failure  of  the 
attempt  to  Protestantise  the  Greek  Church  :  oppression  of  the 
Greek  clergy  :  moral  superiority  of  the  Ottomans  :  imposing 
character  of  their  conquests.  Conversion  of  Christian  slaves. — 
Islam  in  Albania,  conquest  of  the  country,  independent  character 
of  its  people,  gradual  decay  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  its 
causes  ; — in  Servia,  alliance  of  the  Servians  with  the  Turks, 
conversions  mainly  from  among  the  nobles  except  in  Old 
Servia  ;—  in  Montenegro  ; — in  Bosnia,  the  Bogomil.es,  points  of 
similarity  between  the  Bogomilian  heresy  and  the  Muslim  creed, 
conversion  to  Islam  ; — in  Crete,  conversion  in  the  ninth  century, 
oppression  of  the  Venetian  rule,  conquered  by  the  Turks,  con- 
versions to  Islam  .  145 


CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   SPREAD  OF   ISLAM   IN   PERSIA   AND  CENTRAL  ASIA. 


PAGE 


Religious  condition  of  Persia  at  the  time  of  the  Arab  conquest. 
Islam  welcomed  by  many  sections  of  the  population.  Points 
of  similarity  between  the  older  faiths  and  Islam.  Toleration. 
Conversions  to  Islam.  The  Isma'ilians  and  their  missionary 
system.     Islam  in  Central  Asia  and  Afghanistan       .         .         .     206 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE  MONGOLS  AND   TATARS. 

Account  of  the  Mongol  conquests.  Buddhism,  Christianity  and 
Islam  in  rivalry  for  the  allegiance  of  the  Mongols.  Their 
original  religion,  Shamanism,  described.  Spread  of  Buddhism, 
of  Christianity,  and  of  Islam  respectively  among  the  Mongols. 
Difficulties  that  stood  in  the  way  of  Islam.  Cruel  treatment  of 
the  Muslims  by  some  Mongol  rulers.  Early  converts  to  Islam. 
Baraka  Khan,  the  first  Mongol  prince  converted.  Conversion 
of  the  Ilkhans.  Conversion  of  the  Chaghatay  Mongols. 
History  of  Islam  under  the  Golden  Horde  :  Uzbek  Khan  : 
failure  of  attempts  to  convert  the  Russians.  Spread  of  Islam 
in  modern  times  in  the  Russian  Empire.  The  conversion 
of  the  Tatars  of  Siberia 218 

CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN    INDIA. 

Distribution  of  the  Muhammadan  population.  Part  taken  by  the 
Muhammadan  rulers  in  the  propagation  of  Islam  :  conversion 
of  Rajputs  and  others. — The  work  of  the  Muslim  missionaries 
in  India  ;  traditions  of  early  missionary  efforts  in  South  India, 
forced  conversions  under  Haydar  'All  and  Tipu  Sultan,  the 
Mappilas  : — in  the  Maldive  Islands  : — in  the  Deccan,  early 
Arab  settlements,  labours  of  individual  missionaries  : — in  Sind, 
the  rule  of  the  Arabs,  their  toleration,  account  of  individual 
missionaries,  conversion  of  the  Khojahs  and  Bohras : — in 
Bengal,  the  Muhammadan  rule  in  this  province,  extensive  con- 
versions of  the  lower  castes,  religious  revival  in  recent  times. 
— Particular  account  of  the  labours  of  Muslim  missionaries  in 
other  parts  of  India.  Propagationist  movements  of  modern 
times.  Circumstances  facilitating  the  progress  of  Islam  :  the 
oppressiveness  of  the  Hindu  caste  system,  worship  of  Muslim 
saints,  etc. — Spread  of  Islam  in  Kashmir  and  Tibet  .         .         .     254 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHINA. 

Early  notices  of  Islam  in  China.  Intercourse  of  the  Chinese  with 
the  Arabs.  Legendary  account  of  the  first  introduction  of 
Islam  into  China.  Muslims  under  the  T'ang  dynasty :  influence 
of  the  Mongol  conquest  ;  Islam  under  the  Ming  dynasty. 
Relations  of  the  Chinese  Muslims  to  the  Chinese  Government. 
Their  efforts  to  spread  their  religion 294 


xvi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   XI. 

THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA. 


PAGE 


The  Arabs  in  Northern  Africa  :  conversion  of  the  Berbers  :  the 
mission  of  'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasln.  Introduction  of  Islam  into 
the  Sudan  :  rise  of  Muhammadan  kingdoms  :  account  of 
missionary  movements,  Danfodio,  'Uthman  al-Amlr  GhanI,  the 
Qadiriyyah,  the  Tijaniyyah,  and  the  Sanusiyyah.  Spread  of 
Islam  on  the  West  Coast :  Ashanti :  Dahomey.  Spread  of 
Islam  on  the  East  Coast  :  early  Muslim  settlements  :  recent 
expansion  in  German  East  Africa  :  the  Galla  :  the  Somali. 
Islam  in  Cape  Coast  Colony.  Account  of  the  Muslim  mission- 
aries in  Africa  and  their  methods  of  winning  converts        .         .     312 

CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY  ARCHIPELAGO. 

Early  intercourse  between  the  Malay  Archipelago  and  Arabia  and 
India.  Methods  of  missionary  work.  History  of  Islam  in 
Sumatra  ;  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  ;  in  Java  ;  in  the  Moluccas  ; 
in  Borneo;  in  Celebes;  in  the  Philippine  and  the  Sulu  Islands; 
among  the  Papuans.     The  Muslim  missionaries  :  traders :  hajls     363 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Absence  of  missionary  organisation  in  Islam  :  zeal  on  the  part  ot 
individuals.  Who  are  the  Muslim  missionaries?  Causes  that 
have  contributed  to  their  success  :  the  simplicity  of  the  Muslim 
creed :  the  rationalism  and  ritualism  of  Islam.  Islam  not  spread 
by  the  sword.  The  toleration  of  Muhammadan  governments. 
Circumstances  contributing  to  the  progress  of  Islam  in  ancient 
and  in  modern  times 4°8 


APPENDIX   I. 
Letter  of  al-Hashiml  inviting  al-Kindl  to  embrace  Islam  .        .    428 

APPENDIX    II. 

Controversial  literature  between  Muslims  and  the  followers  of  other 

faiths 436 

APPENDIX    III. 
Muslim  missionary  societies 43^ 

Titles  of  Works  cited  by  Abbreviated  References  .        .    440 
Index 457 


THE    PREACHING    OF    ISLAM 


CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Ever  since  Professor  Max  Miiller  delivered  his  lecture  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  on  the  day  of  intercession  for  missions, 
in  December,  1873,  it  has  been  a  literary  commonplace, 
that  the  six  great  religions  of  the  world  may  be  divided  into 
missionary  and  non-missionary;  under  the  latter  head 
fall  Judaism,  Brahmanism  and  Zoroastrianism,  and  under 
the  former  Buddhism,  Christianity  and  Islam;  and  he  well 
defined  what  the  term, — a  missionary  religion, — should  be 
taken  to  mean,  viz.  one  "  in  which  the  spreading  of  the' 
truth  and  the  conversion  of  unbelievers  are  raised  to  the 
rank  of  a  sacred  duty  by  the  founder  or  his  immediate 
successors.  ...  It  is  the  spirit  of  truth  in  the  hearts  of 
believers  which  cannot  rest,  unless  it  manifests  itself  in 
thought,  word  and  deed,  which  is  not  satisfied  till  it  has 
carried  its  message  to  every  human  soul,  till  what  it  believes 
to  be  the  truth  is  accepted  as  the  truth  by  all  members  of 
the  human  family."  x 

It  is  such  a  zeal  for  the  truth  of  their  religion  that  has 
inspired  the  Muhammadans  to  carry  with  them  the  message 
of  Islam  to  the  people  of  every  land  into  which  they  pene- 
trate, and  that  justly  claims  for  their  religion  a  place  among 
those  we  term  missionary.  It  is  the  history  of  the  birth 
of  this  missionary  zeal,  its  inspiring  forces  and  the  modes 
of  its  activity  that  forms  the  subject  of  the  following  pages. 
The    200    millions    of    Muhammadans    scattered    over    the 

1  A  note  on  Mr.  Lyall's  article  :  "  Missionary  Religions."     Fortnightly 
Review,  July,  1874. 
B 


2  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

world  at  the  present  day  are  evidences  of  its  workings 
through  the  length  of  thirteen  centuries. 

The  doctrines  of  this  faith  were  first  proclaimed  to  the 
people  of  Arabia  in  the  seventh  century,  by  a  prophet  under 
whose  banner  their  scattered  tribes  became  a  nation;  and 
filled  with  the  pulsations  of  this  new  national  life,  and  with 
a  fervour  and  enthusiasm  that  imparted  an  almost  invincible 
strength  to  their  armies,  they  poured  forth  over  three 
continents  to  conquer  and  subdue.  Syria,  Palestine, 
Egypt,  North  Africa  and  Persia  were  the  first  to  fall  before 
them,  and  pressing  westward  to  Spain  and  eastward  beyond 
the  Indus,  the  followers  of  the  Prophet  found  themselves, 
one  hundred  years  after  his  death,  masters  of  an  empire 
greater  than  that  of  Rome  at  the  zenith  of  its  power. 

Although  in  after  years  this  great  empire  was  split  up 
and  the  political  power  of  Islam  diminished,  still  its 
spiritual  conquests  went  on  uninterruptedly.  When  the 
Mongol  hordes  sacked  Baghdad  (a.d.  1258)  and  drowned  in 
blood  the  faded  glory  of  the  'Abbasid  dynasty, — when  the 
Muslims  were  expelled  from  Cordova  by  Ferdinand  of  Leon 
and  Castile  (a.d.  1236),  and  Granada,  the  last  stronghold 
of  Islam  in  Spain,  paid  tribute  to  the  Christian  king, — Islam 
had  just  gained  a  footing  in  the  island  of  Sumatra  and  was 
just  about  to  commence  its  triumphant  progress  through 
the  islands  of  the  Malay  Archipelago.  In  the  hours  of  its 
political  degradation,  Islam  has  achieved  some  of  its  most 
brilliant  spiritual  conquests  :  on  two  great  historical  occa- 
sions, infidel  barbarians  have  set  their  feet  on  the  necks 
of  the  followers  of  the  Prophet, — the  Saljuq  Turks  in  the 
eleventh  and  the  Mongols  in  the  thirteenth  century, — and 
in  each  case  the  conquerors  have  accepted  the  religion  of 
the  conquered.  Unaided  also  by  the  temporal  power, 
Muslim  missionaries  have  carried  their  faith  into  Central 
Africa,  China  and  the  East  India  Islands. 

At  the  present  day  the  faith  of  Islam  extends  from  Morocco 
to  Zanzibar,  from  Sierra  Leone  to  Siberia  and  China,  from 
Bosnia  to  New  Guinea.  Outside  the  limits  of  strictly 
Muhammadan  countries  and  of  lands,  such  as  China  and 
Russia,  that  contain  a  large  Muhammadan  population, 
there  are  some  few  small  communities  of  the  followers  of 


INTRODUCTION  3 

the  Prophet,  which  bear  witness  to  the  faith  of  Islam  in 
the  midst  of  unbelievers.  Such  are  the  Polish-speaking 
Muslims  of  Tatar  origin  in  Lithuania,  that  inhabit  the 
districts  of  Kovno,  Vilno  and  Grodno ; *  the  Dutch-speaking 
Muslims  of  Cape  Colony;  and  the  Indian  coolies  that  have 
carried  the  faith  of  Islam  with  them  to  the  West  India 
Islands  and  to  British  and  Dutch  Guiana.  In  recent 
years,  too,  Islam  has  found  adherents  in  England,  in  North 
America,  Australia  and  Japan. 

The  spread  of  this  faith  over  so  vast  a  portion  of  the  globe 
is  due  to  various  causes,  social,  political  and  religious  : 
but  among  these,  one  of  the  most  powerful  factors  at  work 
in  the  production  of  this  stupendous  result,  has  been  the 
unremitted  labours  of  Muslim  missionaries,  who,  with  the 
Prophet  himself  as  their  great  ensample,  have  spent  them- 
selves for  the  conversion  of  unbelievers. 

The  duty  of  missionary  work  is  no  after-thought  in  the 
history  of  Islam,  but  was  enjoined  on  believers  from  the 
beginning,  as  may  be  judged  from  the  following  passages 
in  the  Qur'an, — which  are  here  quoted  in  chronological 
order  according  to  the  date  of  their  being  delivered. 

"  Summon  thou  to  the  way  of  thy  Lord  with  wisdom 
and  with  kindly  warning  :  dispute  with  them  in  the 
kindest  manner,     (xvi.  126.) 

"  They  who  have  inherited  the  Book  after  them  (i.e.  the 
Jews  and  Christians),  are  in  perplexity  of  doubt 
concerning  it. 

"  For  this  cause  summon  thou  (them  to  the  faith),  and 
walk  uprightly  therein  as  thou  hast  been  bidden, 
and  follow  not  their  desires  :  and  say  :  In  whatsoever 
Books  God  hath  sent  down  do  I  believe  :  I  am  com- 
manded to  decide  justly  between  you  :  God  is  your 
Lord  and  our  Lord  :  we  have  our  works  and  you  have 
your  works  :  between  us  and  you  let  there  be  no 
strife  :  God  will  make  us  all  one  :  and  to  Him  shall 
we  return."     (xlii.  13-14.) 


rf 


Similar  injunctions  are  found  also  in  the  Medinite  Surahs, 

1  Reclus,  vol.  v.  p.  433;  Gasztowtt,  p.  320  sqq. 


v 


4  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

delivered  at  a  time  when  Muhammad  was  at  the  head  of 
a  large  army  and  at  the  height  of  his  power. 

"  Say  to  those  who  have  been  given  the  Book  and  to  the 
ignorant,  Do  you  accept  Islam  ?  Then,  if  they 
accept  Islam,  are  they  guided  aright  :  but  if  they 
turn  away,  then  thy  duty  is  only  preaching;  and 
God's  eye  is  on  His  servants,     (hi.  19.) 

"  Thus  God  clearly  showeth  you  His  signs  that  perchance 
ye  may  be  guided; 

"  And  that  there  may  be  from  among  you  a  people  who 
invite  to  the  Good,  and  enjoin  the  Just,  and  forbid 
the  Wrong;  and  these  are  they  with  whom  it  shall 
be  well.     (iii.  99-100.) 

"  To  every  people  have  We  appointed  observances  which 
they  observe.  Therefore  let  them  not  dispute  the 
matter  with  thee,  but  summon  them  to  thy  Lord  : 
Verily  thou  art  guided  aright  : 

"  But  if  they  debate  with  thee,  then  say  :  God  best 
knoweth  what  ye  do  !  "     (xxii.  66-67.) 

The  following  passages  are  taken  from  what  is  generally 
supposed  to  be  the  last  Surah  that  was  delivered. 

"  If  any  one  of  those  who  join  gods  with  God  ask  an 
asylum  of  thee,  grant  him  an  asylum  in  order  that 
he  may  hear  the  word  of  God ;  then  let  him  reach  his 
place  of  safety."     (ix.  6.) 

With  regard  to  the  unbelievers  who  had  broken  their 
plighted  word,  who  "  sell  the  signs  of  God  for  a  mean  price 
and  turn  others  aside  from  His  way,"  and  "  respect  not 
with  a  believer  either  ties  of  blood  or  good  faith,"  ...  it 
is  said  : — 

"  Yet  if  they  turn  to  God  and  observe  prayer  and  give 
alms,  then  are  they  your  brothers  in  the  faith  :  and 
We  make  clear  the  signs  for  men  of  knowledge/' 
(ix.  11.) 

Thus  from  its  very  inception  Islam  has  been  a  missionary 
religion,  both  in  theory  and  in  practice,  for  the  life  of 
Muhammad  exemplifies  the  same  teaching,  and  the  Prophet 


INTRODUCTION  5 

himself  stands  at  the  head  of  a  long  series  of  Muslim 
missionaries  who  have  won  an  entrance  for  their  faith  into 
the  hearts  of  unbelievers.  Moreover  it  is  not  in  the  cruelties 
of  the  persecutor  or  the  fury  of  the  fanatic  that  we  should 
look  for  the  evidences  of  the  missionary  spirit  of  Islam, 
any  more  than  in  the  exploits  of  that  mythical  personage, 
the  Muslim  warrior  with  sword  in  one  hand  and  Qur'an 
in  the  other,1 — but  in  the  quiet,  unobtrusive  labours  of  the 
preacher  and  the  trader  who  have  carried  their  faith  into 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  Such  peaceful  methods  of 
preaching  and  persuasion  were  not  adopted,  as  some  would 
have  us  believe,  only  when  political  circumstances  made 
force  and  violence  impossible  or  impolitic,  but  were  most 
strictly  enjoined  in  numerous  passages  of  the  Qur'an,  as 
follows  : — 

"  And  endure  what  they  say  with  patience,  and  depart 
from  them  with  a  decorous  departure. 

"  And  let  Me  alone  with  the  gainsayers,  rich  in  the 
pleasures  (of  this  life) ;  and  bear  thou  with  them  yet 
a  little  while,     (lxxiii.  io-ii.) 

"  (My)  sole  (work)  is  preaching  from  God  and  His  message, 
(lxxii.  24.) 

"  Tell  those  who  have  believed  to  pardon  those  who  hope 
not  for  the  days  of  God  in  which  He  purposeth  to 
recompense  men  according  to  their  deserts,     (xlv.  13.) 

"  They  who  had  joined  other  gods  with  God  say,  '  Had 
He  pleased,  neither  we  nor  our  forefathers  had 
worshipped  aught  but  Him;  nor  had  we,  apart  from 
Him,  declared  anything  unlawful.'  Thus  acted 
they  who  were  before  them.  Yet  is  the  duty  of  the 
apostles  other  than  plain-spoken  preaching  ?     (xvi. 

37.) 

1  This  misinterpretation  of  the  Muslim  wars  of  conquest  has  arisen  from 
the  assumption  that  wars  waged  for  the  extension  of  Muslim  domination 
over  the  lands  of  the  unbelievers  implied  that  the  aim  in  view  was  their 
conversion.  Goldziher  has  well  pointed  out  this  distinction  in  his  Vor- 
lesungen  uber  den  Islam  :  "  Was  Muhammed  zunachst  in  seinem  arabischen 
Umkreise  getan,  das  hinterlasst  er  als  Testament  fur  die  Zukunft  seiner 
Gemeinde  :  Bekampfung  der  Unglaubigen,  die  Ausbreitung  nicht  so  sehr 
des  Glaubens  als  seiner  Machtsphare,  die  die  Machtsphare  Allahs  ist.  Es 
ist  dabei  den  Kampfern  des  I  slams  zunachst  nicht  so  sehr  um  Bekehrung 
als  um  Unterwerfung  der  Unglaubigen  zu  tun."     (p.  25.) 


\> 


6  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

"  Then  if  they  turn  their  backs,  still  thy  office  is  only 
plain-spoken  preaching,     (xvi.  84.) 

"  Dispute  ye  not,  unless  in  kindliest  sort,  with  the  people 
of  the  Book;  save  with  such  of  them  as  have  dealt 
wrongfully  (with  you)  :  and  say  ye,  '  We  believe  in 
what  has  been  sent  down  to  us  and  hath  been  sent 
down  to  you.  Our  God  and  your  God  is  one,  and 
to  Him  are  we  self -surrendered/     (xxix.  45.) 

"  But  if  they  turn  aside  from  thee,  yet  We  have  not 
sent  thee  to  be  guardian  over  them.  'Tis  thine  but 
to  preach,     (xlii.  47.) 

"  But  if  thy  Lord  had  pleased,  verily  all  who  are  in  the 
world  would  have  believed  together.  Wilt  thou 
then  compel  men  to  become  believers  ?     (x.  99.) 

"  And  we  have  not  sent  thee  otherwise  than  to  mankind 
at  large,  to  announce  and  to  warn."     (xxxiv.  27.) 

Such  precepts  are  not  confined  to  the  Meccan  Surahs,  but 
are  found  in  abundance  also  in  those  delivered  at  Medina, 
as  follows  : — 

"  Let  there  be  no  compulsion  in  religion,     (ii.  257.) 

"  Obey  God  and  obey  the  apostle;  but  if  ye  turn  away, 

yet  is  our  apostle  only  charged  with  plain-spoken 

preaching,     (lxiv.  12.) 
"  Obey  God  and  obey  the  apostle  :  but  if  ye  turn  back, 

still  the  burden  of  his  duty  is  on  him  only,  and  the 

burden  of  your  duty  rests  on  you.     And  if  ye  obey 

him,  ye  shall  have  guidance  :  but  plain  preaching  is 

all  that  devolves  upon  the  apostle,     (xxiv.  53.) 
"Say:    O  men!    I   am   only  your  plain-spoken    (open) 

warner.     (xxii.  48.) 
"  Verily  We  have  sent  thee  to  be  a  witness  and  a  herald 

of  good  and  a  warner, 
"  That  ye  may  believe  on  God  and  on  His  apostle;  and 

may  assist  Him  and  honour  Him,  and  praise  Him 

morning  and  evening,     (xlviii.  8-9.) 
"  Thou  wilt  not  cease  to  discover  the  treacherous  ones 

among  them,   except  a  few  of  them.     But  forgive 

them  and  pass  it   over.     Verily,   God  loveth  those 

who  act  generously."     (v,  16.) 


INTRODUCTION  7 

It  is  the  object  of  the  following  pages  to  show  how  this 
ideal  was  realised  in  history  and  how  these  principles  of 
missionary  activity  were  put  into  practice  by  the  exponents 
of  Islam.  And  at  the  outset  the  reader  should  clearly 
understand  that  this  work  is  not  intended  to  be  a  history 
of  Muhammadan  persecutions  but  of  Muhammadan  missions 
— it  does  not  aim  at  chronicling  the  instances  of  forced 
conversions  which  may  be  found  scattered  up  and  down 
the  pages  of  Muhammadan  histories.  European  writers 
have  taken  such  care  to  accentuate  these,  that  there  is  no 
fear  of  their  being  forgotten,  and  they  do  not  strictly  come 
within  the  province  of  a  history  of  missions.  In  a  history  ^ 
of  Christian  missions  we  should  naturally  expect  to  hear 
more  of  the  labours  of  St.  Liudger  and  St.  Willehad  among 
the  pagan  Saxons  than  of  the  baptisms  that  Charlemagne 
forced  them  to  undergo  at  the  point  of  the  sword.1  The 
true  missionaries  of  Denmark  were  St.  Ansgar  and  his 
successors  rather  than  King  Cnut,  who  forcibly  rooted 
out  paganism  from  his  dominions.2  Abbot  Gottfried  and 
Bishop  Christian,  though  less  successful  in  converting  the 
pagan  Prussians,  were  more  truly  representative  of  Christian 
missionary  work  than  the  Brethren  of  the  Sword  and  other 
Crusaders  who  brought  their  labours  to  completion  by  means 
of  fire  and  sword.  The  knights  of  the  "  Ordo  fratrum 
militiae  Christi  "  forced  Christianity  on  the  people  of  Livonia, 
but  it  is  not  to  these  militant  propagandists  but  to  the  monks 
Meinhard  and  Theodoric  that  we  should  point  as  being  the 
true  missionaries  of  the  Christian  faith  in  this  country. 
The  violent  means  sometimes  employed  by  the  Jesuit 
missionaries 3  cannot  derogate  from  the  honour  due  to 
St.  Francis  Xavier  and  other  preachers  of  the  same  order. 
Nor  is  Valentyn  any  the  less  the  apostle  of  Amboyna  be- 
cause in  1699  an  order  was  promulgated  to  the  Rajas  of  this 

1  See  Enhardi  Fuldensis  Annales,  a.d.  777.  "  Saxones  post  multas 
caedes  et  varia  bella  afflicti,  tandem  christiani  effecti,  Francorum  dicioni 
subduntur."  G.  H.  Pertz  :  Monumenta  Germanise  Historica,  vol.  i.  p.  349. 
(See  also  pp.  156,  159.) 

2  "  Turn  zelo  propagandas  fidei  succensus,  barbara  regna  iusto  certamine 
aggressus,  devictas  subditasque  nationes  Christianas  legi  subiugavit." 
(Breviarium  Romanum.     Iun.  19.) 

3  Mathurin  Veyssiere  de  la  Croze  :  Histoire  du  Christianisme  des  Indes, 
PP-  529-53 1.     (The  Hague,  1724.) 


8  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

island  that  they  should  have  ready  a  certain  number 
of  pagans  to  be  baptised,  when  the  pastor  came  on  his 
rounds.1 

In  the  history  of  the  Christian  church  missionary  activity 
is  seen  to  be  intermittent,  and  an  age  of  apostolic  fervour 
may  be  succeeded  by  a  period  of  apathy  and  indifference, 
or  persecution  and  forced  conversion  may  take  the  place  of 
the  preaching  of  the  Word  ;  so  likewise  does  the  propaganda 
of  Islam  in  various  epochs  of  Muhammadan  history  ebb 
and  flow.     But  since  the  zeal  of  proselytising  is  a  distinct 
feature  of  either  faith,  its  missionary  history  may  fittingly 
be  singled  out  as  a  separate  branch  of  study,  not  as  ex- 
cluding  other  manifestations   of  the  religious  life  but  as 
concentrating  attention  on  an  aspect  of  it  that  has  special 
characteristics  of  its  own.     Thus  the  annals  of  propaganda 
and  persecution  may  be  studied  apart  from  one  another, 
whether   in   the   history   of   the   Christian   or   the   Muslim 
church,  though  in  both  they  may  be  at  times  commingled. 
For  just  as  the  Christian  faith  has  not  always  been  propa- 
gated   by  the  methods    adopted   in  Viken   (the  southern 
part   of    Norway)   by  King  Olaf  Trygvesson,   who   either 
slew  those  who  refused  to  accept  Christianity,  or  cut  off 
their  hands  or  feet,  or  drove  them  into  banishment,  and 
in  this  manner  spread   the   Christian  faith  throughout  the 
whole  of  Viken,2 — and  just  as  the  advice  of  St.  Louis  has 
not  been  made  a  principle  of  Christian  missionary  work, — 
"  When  a  layman  hears  the  Christian  law  ill  spoken  of, 
he  should  not  defend  that  law  save  with  his  sword,  which 
he  should  thrust  into  the  infidel's  belly,  as  far  as  it  will 
go,"  3 — so  there  have  been  Muslim  missionaries  who  have 
not   been   guided   in   their   propagandist   methods   by  the 
savage  utterance   of  Marwan,   the  last   of  the   'Umayyad 
caliphs  :  "  Whosoever  among  the  people  of  Egypt  does  not 
enter  into  my  religion  and  pray  as  I  pray  and  follow  my 
tenets,  I  will  slay  and  crucify  him."  4     Nor  are  al-Mutawak- 

1  Revue  de  l'Histoire  des  Religions,  vol.  xi.  p.  89. 

2  Konrad   Maurer  :     Die   Bekehrung   des   norwegischen   Stammes   zum 
Christenthume,  vol.  i.  p.  284.     (Miinchen,   1855.) 

3  Jean,  Sire  de  Joinvillc  :  Histoire  de  Saint  Louis,  ed.  N,  de  Wailly, 

P-  30.  (§  53). 

4  Severus,  p.  191  (11.  21-22). 


INTRODUCTION  9 

kil,  al-Hakim  and  Tipu  Sultan  to  be  looked  upon  as  typical 
missionaries  of  Islam  to  the  exclusion  of  such  preachers  as 
Mawlana  Ibrahim,  the  apostle  of  Java,  Khwajah  Mu'in  al- 
Din  Chishti  in  India  and  countless  others  who  won  converts 
to  the  Muslim  faith  by  peaceful  means  alone. 

But  though  a  clear  distinction  can  be  drawn  between 
conversion  as  the  result  of  persecution  and  a  peaceful  propa- 
ganda by  means  of  methods  of  persuasion,  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  ascertain  the  motives  that  have  induced  the  convert  to 
change  his  faith,   or  to  discover  whether  the  missionary 
has  been  wholly  animated  by  a  love  of  souls  and  by  the 
high  ideal  set  forth  in  the  first  paragraph  of  this  chapter. 
Both  in  Christianity  and  Islam  there  have  been  at  all  times 
earnest  souls  to  whom  their  religion  has  been  the  supreme 
reality  of  their  lives,  and  this  absorbing  interest  in  matters 
of    the  spirit   has  found  expression  in  that  zeal    for  the 
communication  of  cherished  truths  and  for  the  domination 
of  doctrines  and  systems  they  have  deemed  perfect,  which 
constitutes  the  vivifying  force  of  missionary  movements, — 
and    there    have    likewise    been    those    without    the    pale, 
who  have  responded  to  their  appeal  and  have  embraced 
the  new  faith  with  a  like  fervour.     But,  on  the  other  hand, 
Islam — like  Christianity — has  reckoned  among  its  adherents 
many  persons  to  whom  ecclesiastical  institutions  have  been 
merely  instruments  of  a  political  policy  or  forms  of  social 
organisation,  to  be  accepted  either  as  disagreeable  neces- 
sities or  as  convenient  solutions  of  problems  that  they  do 
not  care  to  think    out  for  themselves;    such  persons  may 
likewise  be  found  among  the  converts  of  either  faith.     Thus 
both  Christianity  and  Islam  have  added  to  the  number  of 
their  followers  by  methods  and  under  conditions — social, 
political    and  economic — which  have  no  connection  with 
such  a  thirst  for  souls  as  animates  the  true  missionary. 
Moreover,  the   annals   of  missionary  enterprise   frequently 
record  the  admission  of  converts  without  any  attempt  to 
analyse  the  motives  that  have  led  them  to  change  their 
faith,   and  especially  for  the  history  of  Muslim  missions 
there  is  a  remarkable  poverty  of  material  in  this  respect, 
since  Muslim  literature  is  singularly  poor  in  those  records 
of  conversions  that  occupy  such  a  large  place  in  the  literature 


io  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

of  the  Christian  church.  Accordingly,  in  the  following 
sketch  of  the  missionary  activity  of  Islam,  it  has  not  always 
been  possible  to  discover  whether  political,  social,  economic 
or  purely  religious  motives  have  determined  conversion, 
though  occasional  reference  can  be  made  to  the  operation 
of  one  or  the  other  influence. 


CHAPTER   II. 

STUDY     OF    THE     LIFE    OF     MUHAMMAD      CONSIDERED    AS    A 

PREACHER   OF   ISLAM. 

It  is  not  proposed  in  this  chapter  to  add  another  to  the 
already  numerous  biographies  of  Muhammad,  but  rather 
to  make  a  study  of  his  life  in  one  of  its  aspects  only,  viz. 
that  in  which  the  Prophet  is  presented  to  us  as  a  preacher, 
as  the  apostle  unto  men  of  a  new  religion.     The  life  of   the 
founder  of  Islam  and  the  inaugurator  of  its  propaganda 
may  naturally  be  expected  to  exhibit  to  us  the  true  character 
of  the  missionary  activity  of  this  religion.     If  the  life  of  the 
Prophet  serves  as  the  standard  of  conduct  for  the  ordinary 
believer,  it  must  do  the  same  for  the  Muslim  missionary. 
From  the  pattern,  therefore,  we  may  hope  to  learn  something 
of  the  spirit  that  would  animate  those  who  sought  to  copy 
it,  and  of  the  methods  they  might  be  expected  to  adopt. 
For  the  missionary  spirit  of  Islam  is  no  after-thought  in  its 
history;  it  interpenetrates  the  religion  from  its  very  com- 
mencement, and  in  the  following  sketch  it  is  desired  to  show 
how  this  is  so,  how  Muhammad  the  Prophet  is  the  type  of 
the  missionary  of  Islam.     It  is  therefore  beside  the  purpose 
to  describe  his  early  history,  or  the  influences  under  which 
he  grew  up  to  manhood,  or  to  consider  him  in  the  light 
either  of  a  statesman  or  a  general :  it  is  as  the  preacher 
alone  that  he  will  demand  our  attention. 

When,  after  long  internal  conflict  and  disquietude, 
Muhammad  was  at  length  convinced  of  his  divine  mission, 
his  earliest  efforts  were  directed  towards  persuading  his 
own  family  of  the  truth  of  the  new  doctrine.  The  unity 
of  God,  the  abomination  of  idolatry,  the  duty  laid  upon 
man  of  submission  to  the  will  of  his  Creator,— these  were 
the  simple   truths   to   which  he   claimed   their   allegiance. 

ii 


12  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

The  first  convert  was  his  faithful  and  loving  wife,  Khadijah, 
— she  who  fifteen  vears  before  had  offered  her  hand  in 
marriage  to  the  poor  kinsman  that  had  so  successfully 
traded  with  her  merchandise  as  a  hired  agent, — with  the 
words,  "  I  love  thee,  my  cousin,  for  thy  kinship  with  me, 
for  the  respect  with  which  thy  people  regard  thee,  for  thy 
honesty,  for  the  beauty  of  thy  character  and  for  the  truth- 
fulness of  thy  speech."  x  She  had  lifted  him  out  of  poverty, 
and  enabled  him  to  live  up  to  the  social  position  to  which 
he  was  entitled  by  right  of  birth ;  but  this  was  as  nothing  to 
the  fidelity  and  loving  devotion  with  which  she  shared  his 
mental  anxieties,  and  helped  him  with  tenderest  sympathy 
and  encouragement  in  the  hour  of  his  despondency. 

Up  to  her  death  in  a.d.  619  (after  a  wedded  life  of  five 
and  twenty  years)  she  was  always  ready  with  sympathy, 
consolation  and  encouragement  whenever  he  suffered  from 
the  persecution  of  his  enemies  or  was  tortured  by  doubts 
and  misgivings.  "  So  Khadijah  believed/1  says  the  bio- 
grapher of  the  Prophet,  "  and  attested  the  truth  of  that 
which  came  to  him  from  God  and  aided  him  in  his  under- 
taking. Thus  was  the  Lord  minded  to  lighten  the  burden 
of  His  Prophet ;  for  whenever  he  heard  anything  that 
grieved  him  touching  his  rejection  by  the  people,  he  would 
return  to  her  and  God  would  comfort  him  through  her, 
for  she  reassured  him  and  lightened  his  burden  and  de- 
clared her  trust  in  him  and  made  it  easy  for  him  to  bear 
the  scorn  of  men."  2 

Among  the  earliest  believers  were  his  adopted  children 
Zayd  and  'All,  and  his  bosom  friend  Abu  Bakr,  of  whom 
Muhammad    would    often    say   in    after    years,    "  I    never 

invited   any   to   the   faith  who   displayed  not   hesitation, 

perplexity  and  vacillation — excepting  only  Abu  Bakr; 
who  when  I  told  him  of  Islam  tarried  not,  neither  was 
perplexed."  He  was  a  wealthy  merchant,  much  respected 
by  his  fellow  citizens  for  the  integrity  of  his  character  and 
for  his  intelligence  and  ability.  After  his  conversion  he 
expended  the  greater  part  of  his  fortune  on  the  purchase 
of  Muslim  slaves  who  were  persecuted  by  their  masters 
on  account  of  their  adherence  to  the  teaching  of  Muhammad, 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  p.  *2o.  2  Id.  p,  155. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF  MUHAMMAD        13 

Through  his  influence,  to  a  great  extent,  five  of  the  earliest 
converts  were  added  to  the  number  of  believers,  Sa'd  b. 
Abi  Waqqas,  the  future  conqueror  of  the  Persians;  al- 
Zubayr  b.  al-'Awwam,  a  relative  both  of  the  Prophet  and 
his  wife;  Talhah,  famous  as  a  warrior  in  after  days;  a 
wealthy  merchant  'Abd  al-Rahman  b.  'Awf,  and  'Uthman, 
the  third  Khalffah.  The  last  was  early  exposed  to  persecu- 
tion; his  uncle  seized  and  bound  him,  saying,  "  Dost  thou 
prefer  a  new  religion  to  that  of  thy  fathers  ?  I  swear  I  will 
not  loose  thee  until  thou  givest  up  this  new  faith  thou  art 
following  after."  To  which  'Uthman  replied,  "  By  the 
Lord,  I  will  never  abandon  it  !  '  Whereupon  his  uncle, 
seeing  the  firmness  of  his  attachment  to  his  faith,  released 
him. 

With  other  additions,  particularly  from  among  slaves 
and  poor  persons,  the  Prophet  succeeded  in  collecting  round 
him  a  little  band  of  followers  during  the  first  three  years 
of  his  mission.  Encouraged  by  the  success  of  these  private 
efforts,  Muhammad  determined  on  more  active  measures 
and  began  to  preach  in  public.  He  called  his  kinsmen 
together  and  invited  them  to  embrace  the  new  faith. 
"  No  Arab,"  he  urged,  "  has  offered  to  his  nation  more 
precious  advantages  than  those  I  bring  you.  I  offer  you 
happiness  in  this  world  and  in  the  life  to  come.  Who 
among  you  will  aid  me  in  this  task  ?  ]  All  were  silent. 
Only  'AH,  with  boyish  enthusiasm,  cried  out,  "  Prophet  of 
God,  I  will  aid  thee."  At  this  the  company  broke  up  with 
derisive  laughter. 

Undeterred  by  the  ill-success  of  this  preaching,  he 
repeatedly  appealed  to  them  on  other  occasions,  but  his 
message  and  his  warnings  received  from  them  nothing  but 
scoffing  and  contempt. 

More  than  once  the  Quraysh  tried  to  induce  his  uncle 
Abu  Talib,  as  head  of  the  clan  of  the  Banu  Hashim,  to 
which  Muhammad  belonged,  to  restrain  him  from  making 
such  attacks  upon  their  ancestral  faith,  or  otherwise  they 
threatened  to  resort  to  more  violent  measures.  Abu 
Talib  accordingly  appealed  to  his  nephew  not  to  bring 
disaster  on  himself  and  his  family.  The  Prophet  replied  : 
"  Were  the  sun  to  come  down  on  my  right  hand  and  the 


J> 


i4  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

moon  on  my  left,  and  the  choice  were  offered  me  of  abandon- 
ing my  mission  until  God  himself  should  reveal  it,  or 
perishing  in  the  achievement  of  it,  I  would  not  abandon  it." 
Abu  Talib  was  moved  and  exclaimed,  "  Go  and  say  whatever 
thou  wilt  :  by  God  !  I  will  never  give  thee  up  unto  thy 
enemies." 

The  Quraysh  viewed  the  progress  of  the  new  religion 
with  increasing  dissatisfaction  and  hatred.  They  adopted 
all  possible  means,  threats  and  promises,  insults  and  offers 
of  worldly  honour  and  aggrandisement  to  induce  Muhammad 
to  abandon  the  part  he  had  taken  up.  The  violent  abuse 
with  which  he  was  assailed  is  said  to  have  been  the  indirect 
cause  of  drawing  to  his  side  one  important  convert  in  the 
person  of  his  uncle,  Hamzah,  whose  chivalrous  soul  was  so 
stung  to  sudden  sympathy  by  a  tale  of  insult  inflicted  on 
and  patiently  borne  by  his  nephew,  that  he  changed  at 
once  from  a  bitter  enemy  into  a  staunch  adherent.  His 
was  not  the  only  instance  of  sympathy  for  the  sufferings 
of  the  Muslims  being  aroused  at  the  sight  of  the  persecu- 
tions they  had  to  endure,  and  many,  no  doubt,  secretly 
favoured  the  new  religion  who  did  not  declare  themselves 
until  the  day  of  its  triumph. 

The  hostility  of  the  Quraysh  to  the  new  faith  increased 
in  bitterness  as  they  watched  the  increase  in  the  numbers 
of  its  adherents.  They  realised  that  the  triumph  of  the 
new  teaching  meant  the  destruction  of  the  national  religion 
and  the  national  worship,  and  a  loss  of  wealth  and  power 
to  the  guardians  of  the  sacred  Ka'bah.  Muhammad  him- 
self was  safe  under  the  protection  of  Abu  Talib  and  the 
Banu.  Hashim,  who,  though  they  had  no  sympathy  for  the 
doctrines  their  kinsman  taught,  yet  with  the  strong  clan- 
feeling  peculiar  to  the  Arabs,  secured  him  from  any  attempt 
upon  his  life,  though  he  was  still  exposed  to  continual 
insult  and  annoyance.  But  the  poor  who  had  no  protector, 
and  the  slaves,  had  to  endure  the  crudest  persecution, 
and  were  imprisoned  and  tortured  in  order  to  induce  them 
to  recant.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Abu  Bakr  purchased 
the  freedom  of  Bilal,1  an  African  slave,  who  was  called  by 

1  He    is    famous    throughout    the    Muhammadan   world   as   the   first 
mu'adhdhin. 


STUDY  OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        15 

Muhammad  "  the  first-fruits  of  Abyssinia."  He  had  been 
cruelly  tortured  by  being  exposed,  day  after  day,  to  the 
scorching  rays  of  the  sun,  stretched  out  on  his  back,  with 
an  enormous  stone  on  his  stomach;  here  he  was  told  he 
would  have  to  stay  until  either  he  died  or  renounced 
Muhammad  and  worshipped  idols,  to  which  he  would  reply 
only,  "  There  is  but  one  God,  there  is  but  one  God."  Two 
persons  died  under  the  tortures  they  had  to  undergo. 
The  constancy  of  a  few  gave  way  under  the  trial,  but  perse- 
cution served  only  to  re-kindle  the  zeal  of  others.  'Abd  Allah 
b.  Mas'ud  made  bold  to  recite  a  passage  of  the  Qur'an 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Ka'bah  itself, — an  act  of  daring 
that  none  of  the  followers  of  Muhammad  had  ventured  upon 
before.  The  assembled  Quraysh  attacked  him  and  smote 
him  on  the  face,  but  it  was  some  time  before  they  com- 
pelled him  to  desist.  He  returned  to  his  companions, 
prepared  to  bear  witness  to  his  faith  in  a  similar  manner 
on  the  next  day,  but  they  dissuaded  him,  saying,  "  This 
is  enough  for  thee,  since  thou  hast  made  them  listen  to 
what  they  hated  to  hear." 

The  virulence  of  the  opposition  of  the  Quraysh  is  probably 
the  reason  why  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  mission  Muhammad 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  house  of  al-Arqam,  one  of  the 
early  converts.  It  was  in  a  central  situation,  much  fre- 
quented by  pilgrims  and  strangers,  and  here  peaceably 
and  without  interruption  he  was  able  to  preach  the  doctrines 
of  Islam  to  all  enquirers  that  came  to  him.  Muhammad's 
stay  in  this  house  marks  an  important  epoch  in  the  propa- 
gation of  Islam  in  Mecca,  and  many  Muslims  dated  their 
conversion  from  the  days  when  the  Prophet  preached  in 
the  house  of  al-Arqam. 

As  Muhammad  was  unable  to  relieve  his  persecuted 
followers,  he  advised  them  to  take  refuge  in  Abyssinia, 
and  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  mission  (a.d.  615),  eleven  men  and 
four  women  crossed  over  to  Abyssinia,  where  they  received 
a  kind  welcome  from  the  Christian  king  of  the  country. 
Among  them  was  a  certain  Mus'ab  b.  'Umayr  whose 
history  is  interesting  as  of  one  who  had  to  endure  that 
most  bitter  trial  of  the  new  convert — the  hatred  of  those 
he  loves  and  who   once  loved  him.     He  had  been  led  to 


>' 


16  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

embrace  Islam  through  the  teaching  he  had  listened  to  in  the 
house  of  al-Arqam,  but  he  was  afraid  to  let  the  fact  of  his 
conversion  become  known,  because  his  tribe  and  his  mother, 
who  bore  an  especial  love  to  him,  were  bitterly  opposed  to 
the  new  religion;  and  indeed,  when  they  discovered  the 
fact,  seized  and  imprisoned  him.  But  he  succeeded  in 
effecting  his  escape  to  Abyssinia. 

The  hatred  of  the  Quraysh  is  said  to  have  pursued  the 
fugitives  even  to  Abyssinia,  and  an  embassy  was  sent  to 
demand  their  extradition  from  the  king  of  that  country. 
But  when  he  heard  their  story  from  the  Muslims,  he 
refused  to  withdraw  from  them  his  protection.  In 
answer  to  his  enquiries  as  to  their  religion,  they  said  : 
"  O  King,  we  were  plunged  in  the  darkness  of  ignorance, 
worshipping  idols,  and  eating  carrion ;  we  practised  abomina- 
tions, severed  the  ties  of  kinship  and  maltreated  our 
neighbours;  the  strong  among  us  devoured  the  weak;  and 
so  we  remained  until  God  sent  us  an  apostle,  from  among 
ourselves,  whose  lineage  we  knew  as  well  as  his  truth,  his 
trustworthiness  and  the  purity  of  his  life.  He  called  upon 
us  to  worship  the  One  God  and  abandon  the  stones  and 
idols  that  our  fathers  had  worshipped  in  His  stead.  He 
bade  us  be  truthful  in  speech,  faithful  to  our  promises, 
compassionate  and  kind  to  our  parents  and  neighbours, 
and  to  desist  from  crime  and  bloodshed.  He  forbade  to 
do  evil,  to  lie,  to  rob  the  orphan  or  defame  women.  He 
enjoined  on  us  the  worship  of  God  alone,  with  prayer, 
almsgiving  and  fasting.  And  we  believed  in  him  and 
followed  the  teachings  that  he  brought  us  from  God.  But 
our  countrymen  rose  up  against  us  and  persecuted  us  to 
make  us  renounce  our  faith,  and  return  to  the  worship  of 
idols  and  the  abominations  of  our  former  life.  So  when  they 
cruelly  entreated  us,  reducing  us  to  bitter  straits  and  came 
between  us  and  the  practice  of  our  religion,  we  took  refuge 
in  your  country;  putting  our  trust  in  your  justice,  we  hope 
that  you  will  deliver  us  from  the  oppression  of  our  enemies." 
Their  prayer  was  heard  and  the  embassy  of  the  Quraysh  re- 
turned discomfited.1     Meanwhile,  in  Mecca,  a  fresh  attempt 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  p.  219—220.  Tabari  makes  no  mention  of  this  mission  and 
Caetani  (i.  p.  278)  accordingly  suggests  that  it  is  a  later  invention. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        17 

was  made  to  induce  the  Prophet  to  abandon  his  work  of 
preaching  by  promises  of  wealth  and  honour,  but  in  vain. 

While  the  result  of  the  embassy  to  Abyssinia  was  being 
looked  for  in  Mecca  with  the  greatest  expectancy,   there 
occurred  the  conversion  of  a  man,  who  before  had  been 
one  of  the  most  bitter  enemies  of  Muhammad,   and  had 
opposed  him  with  the  utmost  persistence  and  fanaticism — 
a  man  whom  the  Muslims  had  every  reason  then  to  look 
on  as  their  most  terrible  and  virulent  enemy,  though  after- 
wards he  shines  as  one  of  the  noblest  figures  in  the  early 
history  of  Islam,  viz.    'Umar  b.  al-Khattab.     One  day,   in 
a  fit  of  rage  against  the  Prophet,  he  set  out,  sword  in  hand, 
to  slay  him.     On  the  way,  one  of  his  relatives  met  him 
and  asked  him  where  he  was  going.     "  I  am  looking  for 
Muhammad/'  he  answered,  "  to  kill  the  renegade  who  has 
brought   discord   among  the   Quraysh,    called   them   fools, 
reviled  their  religion  and    defamed  their  gods."     "  Why 
dost  thou  not  rather  punish  those  of  thy  own  family,  and 
set  them  right  ?  "     "  And  who  are  these  of  my  own  family  ?  " 
answered  'Umar.      "  Thy  brother-in-law  Sa'id  and  thy  sister 
Fatimah,  who  have  become  Muslims  and  followers  of  Muham- 
mad."      'Umar  at  once  rushed  off  to  the  house  of  his  sister, 
and  found  her  with  her  husband   and  Khabbab,   another 
of  the  followers  of  Muhammad,  who  was  teaching  them  to 
recite  a  chapter  of  the  Qur'an.     'Umar  burst  into  the  room  : 
"  What  was  that  sound  I  heard  ?  ;      "It  was  nothing," 
they  replied.     "  Nay,  but  I  heard  you,  and  I  have  learned 
that  you  have  become  followers  of  Muhammad."     Where- 
upon  he   rushed   upon   Sa'id   and   struck   him.     Fatimah 
threw  herself  between  them,  to  protect  her  husband,  crying, 
"  Yes,  we  are  Muslims ;  we  believe  in  God  and  His  Prophet  : 
slay  us  if  you  will."     In  the  struggle  his  sister  was  wounded, 
and  when  'Umar  saw  the  blood  on  her  face,  he  was  softened 
and  asked  to  see  the  paper  they  had  been  reading  :  after 
some  hesitation  she  handed  it  to  him.    It  contained  the  20th 
Surah  of  the  Our'an.     When  'Umar  read  it,  he  exclaimed, 
"  How   beautiful,   how   sublime  it  is  ! '      As   he   read   on, 
conviction  suddenly  overpowered  him  and  he  cried,  "  Lead 
me  to  Muhammad  that  I  may  tell  him  of  my  conversion."  x 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  pp.  225-6. 


f  ■ 


18  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

The  conversion  of  'Umar  is  a  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  Islam  :  the  Muslims  were  now  able  to  take  up  a  bolder 
attitude.  Muhammad  left  the  house  of  al-Arqam  and  the 
believers  publicly  performed  their  devotions  together 
round  the  Ka'bah.  The  situation  might  thus  be  expected 
to  give  the  aristocracy  of  Mecca  just  cause  for  apprehension. 
For  they  had  no  longer  to  deal  with  a  band  of  oppressed 
and  despised  outcasts,  struggling  for  a  weak  and  miserable 
existence.  It  was  rather  a  powerful  faction,  adding  daily 
to  its  strength  by  the  accession  of  influential  citizens  and 
endangering  the  stability  of  the  existing  government  by 
an  alliance  with  a  powerful  foreign  prince. 

The  Quraysh  resolved  accordingly  to  make  a  determined 
effort  to  check  the  further  growth  of  the  new  movement 
in  their  city.  They  put  the  Banii  Hashim,  who  through 
ties  of  kindred  protected  the  Prophet,  under  a  ban,  in 
accordance  with  which  the  Quraysh  agreed  that  they  would 
not  marry  their  women,  nor  give  their  own  in  marriage  to 
them;  they  would  sell  nothing  to  them,  nor  buy  aught 
from  them — that  dealings  with  them  of  every  kind  should 
cease.  For  three  years  the  Banii  Hashim  are  said  to  have 
been  confined  to  one  quarter  of  the  city,  except  during  the 
sacred  months,  in  which  all  war  ceased  throughout  Arabia 
and  a  truce  was  made  in  order  that  pilgrims  might  visit 
the  sacred  Ka'bah,  the  centre  of  the  national  religion. 

Muhammad  used  to  take  advantage  of  such  times  of 
pilgrimage  to  preach  to  the  various  tribes  that  flocked  to 
Mecca  and  the  adjacent  fairs.  But  with  no  success,  for 
his  uncle  Abu  Lahab  used  to  dog  his  footsteps,  crying  with 
a  loud  voice,  "He  is  an  impostor  who  wants  to  draw  you 
away  from  the  faith  of  your  fathers  to  the  false  doctrines 
that  he  brings,  wherefore  separate  yourselves  from  him 
and  hear  him  not."  They  would  taunt  him  with  the  words  : 
"  Thine  own  people  and  kindred  should  know  thee  best  : 
wherefore  do  they  not  believe  and  follow  thee  ?  :  But  at 
length  the  privations  endured  by  Muhammad  and  his 
kinsmen  enlisted  the  sympathy  of  a  numerous  section  of 
the  Quraysh  and  the  ban  was  withdrawn. 

In  the  same  year  the  loss  of  Khadijah,  the  faithful  wife 
who   for   twenty-five   years   had   been   his   counsellor   and 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        1Q 

support,  plunged  Muhammad  into  the  utmost  grief  and 
despondency;  and  a  little  later  the  death  of  Abu  Talib 
deprived  him  of  his  constant  and  most  powerful  protector 
and  exposed  him  afresh  to  insult  and  contumely. 

Scorned  and  rejected  by  his  own  townsmen,  to  whom  he 
had  delivered  his  message  with  so  little  success  for  ten  years, 
he  resolved  to  see  if  there  were  not  others  who  might  be 
more  ready  to  listen,  among  whom  the  seeds  of  faith  might 
find  a  more  receptive  and  fruitful  soil.  With  this  hope  he 
set  out  for  Ta  if,  a  city  about  seventy  miles  from  Mecca. 
Before  an  assembly  of  the  chief  men  of  the  city,  he  ex- 
pounded his  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  and  of  the  mission 
he  had  received  as  the  Prophet  of  God  to  proclaim  this 
faith ;  at  the  same  time  he  besought  their  protection  against 
his  persecutors  in  Mecca.  The  disproportion  between  his 
high  claims  (which  moreover  were  unintelligible  to  the 
heathen  people  of  Ta  if)  and  his  helpless  condition  only 
excited  their  ridicule  and  scorn,  and  pitilessly  stoning  him 
with  stones  they  drove  him  from  their  city. 

On  his  return  from  Ta  if  the  prospects  of  the  success  of 
Muhammad  seemed  more  hopeless  than  ever,  and  the 
agony  of  his  soul  gave  itself  utterance  in  the  words  that  he 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Noah  :  "  O  my  Lord,  verily  I  have 
cried  to  my  people  night  and  day;  and  my  cry  only  makes 
them  flee  from  me  the  more.  And  verily,  so  oft  as  I  cry 
to  them,  that  Thou  mayest  forgive  them,  they  thrust  their 
fingers  into  their  ears  and  wrap  themselves  in  their  garments, 
and  persist  (in  their  error),  and  are  disdainfully  disdainful." 
(lxxi.  5-6.) 

It  was  the  Prophet's  habit  at  the  time  of  the  annual  pilgrim- 
age to  visit  the  encampments  of  the  various  Arab  tribes 
and  discourse  with  them  upon  religion.  By  some  his  words 
were  treated  with  indifference,  by  others  rejected  with 
scorn.  But  consolation  came  to  him  from  an  unexpected 
quarter.  He  met  a  little  group  of  six  or  seven  persons 
whom  he  recognised  as  coming  from  Medina,  or,  as  it  was 
then  called,  Yathrib.  "  Of  what  tribe  are  you  ?  "  said  he, 
addressing  them.  "  We  are  of  the  Khazraj,"  they  answered. 
"  Friends  of  the  Jews  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  Then  will  you  not 
sit  down  awhile,  that  I  may  talk  with  you  ?  "     "  Assuredly," 


j- 


20  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

replied  they.  Then  they  sat  down  with  him,  and  he  pro- 
claimed unto  them  the  true  God  and  preached  Islam  and 
recited  to  them  the  Qur'an.  Now  so  it  was,  in  that  God 
wrought  wonderfully  for  Islam  that  there  were  found  in 
their  country  Jews,  who  possessed  scriptures  and  wisdom, 
while  they  themselves  were  heathen  and  idolaters.  Now 
the  Jews  ofttimes  suffered  violence  at  their  hands,  and 
when  strife  was  between  them  had  ever  said  to  them, 
"  Soon  will  a  Prophet  arise  and  his  time  is  at  hand;  him 
will  we  follow,  and  with  him  slay  you  with  the  slaughter 
of  'Ad  and  of  Iram."  When  now  the  apostle  of  God  was 
speaking  with  these  men  and  calling  on  them  to  believe  in 
God,  they  said  one  to  another  :  "  Know  surely  that  this 
is  the  Prophet,  of  whom  the  Jews  have  warned  us ;  come 
let  us  now  make  haste  and  be  the  first  to  join  him."  So 
they  embraced  Islam,  and  said  to  him,  "  Our  countrymen 
have  long  been  engaged  in  a  most  bitter  and  deadly  feud 
with  one  another;  but  now  perhaps  God  will  unite  them 
together  through  thee  and  thy  teaching.  Therefore  we 
will  preach  to  them  and  make  known  to  them  this  religion, 
that  we  have  received  from  thee."  So,  full  of  faith,  they 
returned  to  their  own  country.1 

Such  is  the  traditional  account  of  this  event  which  was 
the  turning-point  of  Muhammad's  mission.  He  had  now 
met  with  a  people  whose  antecedents  had  in  some  way 
prepared  their  minds  for  the  reception  of  his  teaching 
and  whose  present  circumstances,  as  afterwards  appeared, 
were  favourable  to  his  cause. 

The  city  of  Yathrib  had  been  long  occupied  by  Jews 
whom  some  national  disaster,  possibly  the  persecution 
under  Hadrian,  had  driven  from  their  own  country,  when 
a  party  of  wandering  emigrants,  the  two  Arab  clans  of 
Khazraj  and  Aws,  arrived  at  Yathrib  and  were  admitted 
to  a  share  in  the  territory.  As  their  numbers  increased 
they  encroached  more  and  more  on  the  power  of  the  Jewish 
rulers,  and  finally,  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  the 
government  of  the  city  passed  entirely  into  their  hands. 

Some  of  the  Arabs  had  embraced  the  Jewish  religion,  and 
many  of  the  former  masters  of  the  city  still  dwelt  there  in 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  pp.  286-7. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        21 

the  service  of  their  conquerors,  so  that  it  contained  in 
Muhammad's  time  a  considerable  Jewish  population.  The 
people  of  Yathrib  were  thus  familiar  with  the  idea  of  a 
Messiah  who  was  to  come,  and  were  consequently  more 
capable  of  understanding  the  claim  of  Muhammad  to  be 
accepted  as  the  Prophet  of  God,  than  were  the  idolatrous 
Meccans  to  whom  such  an  idea  was  entirely  foreign  and 
especially  distasteful  to  the  Quraysh,  whose  supremacy 
over  the  other  tribes  and  whose  worldly  prosperity  arose 
from  the  fact  that  they  were  the  hereditary  guardians  of 
the  national  collection  of  idols  kept  in  the  sacred  enclosure 
of  the  Ka'bah. 

Further,  the  city  of  Yathrib  was  distracted  by  incessant 
civil  discord  through  a  long-standing  feud  between  the 
Banu  Khazraj  and  the  Banii  Aws.  The  citizens  lived  in 
uncertainty  and  suspense,  and  anything  likely  to  bind  the 
conflicting  parties  together  by  a  tie  of  common  interest 
could  not  but  prove  a  boon  to  the  city.  Just  as  the  mediaeval 
republics  of  Northern  Italy  chose  a  stranger  to  hold  the 
chief  post  in  their  cities  in  order  to  maintain  some  balance 
of  power  between  the  rival  factions,  and  prevent,  if  possible, 
the  civil  strife  which  was  so  ruinous  to  commerce  and  the 
general  welfare,  so  the  Yathribites  would  not  look  upon 
the  arrival  of  a  stranger  with  suspicion,  even  though  he 
was  likely  to  usurp  or  gain  permission  to  assume  the  vacant 
authority. 

On  the  contrary,  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  warm  welcome 
which  Muhammad  received  in  Medina  would  seem  to  be 
that  the  adoption  of  Islam  appeared  to  the  more  thoughtful 
of  its  citizens  to  be  a  remedy  for  the  disorders  from  which 
their  society  was  suffering,  by  its  orderly  discipline  of  life 
and  its  bringing  the  unruly  passions  of  men  under  the 
discipline  of  laws  enunciated  by  an  authority  superior  to 
individual  caprice.1 

These  facts  go  far  to  explain  how  eight  years  after  the 
Hijrah  Muhammad  could,  at  the  head  of  10,000  followers, 
enter  the  city  in  which  he  had  laboured  for  ten  years  with 
so  meagre  a  result. 

But  this  is  anticipating.     Muhammad  had  proposed  to 

1  Caetani,  vol.  i.  pp.  334~5- 


22  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

accompany  his  new  converts,  the  Khazrajites,  to  Yathrib 
himself,  but  they  dissuaded  him  therefrom,  until  a  reconcili- 
ation could  be  effected  with  the  Banii  Aws.  '  Let  us,  we 
pray  thee,  return  unto  our  people,  if  haply  the  Lord  will 
create  peace  amongst  us;  and  we  will  come  back  again 
unto  thee.  Let  the  season  of  pilgrimage  in  the  following 
year  be  the  appointed  time."  So  they  returned  to  their 
homes,  and  invited  their  people  to  the  faith;  and  many 
believed,  so  that  there  remained  hardly  a  family  in  which 
mention  was  not  made  of  the  Prophet. 

When  the  time  of  pilgrimage  again  came  round,  a  deputa- 
tion from  Yathrib,  ten  men  of  the  Banii  Khazraj,  and  two 
of  the  Banii  Aws,  met  him  at  the  appointed  spot  and 
pledged  him  their  word  to  obey  his  teaching.  This,  the 
first  pledge  of  'Aqabah,  so  called  from  the  secret  spot  at 
v  which  they  met,  ran  as  follows  : — "  We  will  not  worship 
any  but  the  one  God;  we  will  not  steal,  neither  will  we 
commit  adultery  or  kill  our  children;  we  will  abstain  from 
calumny  and  slander;  we  will  obey  the  Prophet  in  every 
thing  that  is  right."  These  twelve  men  now  returned  to 
Yathrib  as  missionaries  of  Islam,  and  so  well  prepared  was 
the  ground,  and  with  such  zeal  did  they  prosecute  their 
mission,  that  the  new  faith  spread  rapidly  from  house  to 
house  and  from  tribe  to  tribe. 

They  were  accompanied  on  their  return  by  Mus'ab  b. 
'Umayr;  though,  according  to  another  account  he  was  sent 
by  the  Prophet  upon  a  written  requisition  from  Yathrib. 
This  young  man  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  converts,  and 
had  lately  returned  from  Abyssinia ;  thus  he  had  had  much 
experience,  and  severe  training  in  the  school  of  persecution 
had  not  only  sobered  his  zeal  but  taught  him  how  to  meet 
persecution  and  deal  with  those  who  were  ready  to  condemn 
Islam  without  waiting  to  learn  the  true  contents  of  its 
teaching;  accordingly  Muhammad  could  with  the  greatest 
confidence  entrust  him  with  the  difficult  task  of  directing 
and  instructing  the  new  converts,  cherishing  the  seeds  of 
religious  zeal  and  devotion  that  had  already  been  sown  and 
bringing  them  to  fruition.  Mus'ab  took  up  his  abode  in 
the  house  of  As'ad  b.  Zurarah,  and  gathered  the  converts 
together  for  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the  Qur'an,  sometimes 


STUDY  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  MUHAMMAD        2^ 


.) 


here  and  sometimes  in  a  house  belonging  to  the  Banu 
Zafar,  which  was  situated  in  a  quarter  of  the  town  occupied 
jointly  by  this  family  and  that  of  'Abd  al-Ashhal. 

The  heads  of  the  latter  family  at  that  time  were  Sa'd 
b.  Mu'adh   and  Usayd  b.   Hudayr.     One  day  it  happened 
that  Mus'ab  was  sitting  together  with  As'ad  in  this  house 
of  the  Banu  Zafar,  engaged  in  instructing  some  new  con- 
verts,  when   Sa'd    b.    Mu'adh,   having  come   to    know  of 
their  whereabouts,  said  to  Usayd  b.  Hudayr  :   "  Drive  out 
these  fellows  who  have  come  into  our  houses  to  make  fools 
of  the  weaklings  among  us ;  I  would  spare  thee  the  trouble 
did  not  the  tie  of  kinship  between  me  and  As'ad  prevent 
my  doing  him  any  harm  '    (for  he  himself  was  the  cousin 
of  As'ad).     Hereupon  Usayd  took  his  spear  and,  bursting 
in  upon  As'ad  and  Mus'ab,  "  What  are  you  doing  ?  "  he 
cried,  "  leading  weak-minded    folk  astray  ?     If  you  value 
your  lives,  begone  hence. "     "  Sit  down  and  listen,"  Mus'ab 
answered  quietly,   "  if  thou  art   pleased  with  what   thou 
hearest,  accept  it;  if  not,  then  leave  it."     Usayd  stuck  his 
spear  in  the  ground  and  sat  down  to  listen,  while  Mus'ab 
expounded  to  him  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Islam  and 
read  several  passages  of  the  Qur'an.     After  a  time  Usayd,    ^,f 
enraptured,  cried,  "  What  must  I  do  to  enter  this  religion  ?  " 
"  Purify    thyself    with    water,"    answered    Mus'ab,    "  and 
confess  that  there  is  no  god  but  God  and  that  Muhammad 
is   the   apostle   of   God."      Usayd   at    once   complied   and 
repeated  the  profession  of  faith,  adding,  "  After  me  you 
have  still  another   man   to   convince  '     (referring   to   Sa'd 
b.  Mu'adh).     "  If  he  is  persuaded,  his  example  will  bring 
after  him  all  his  people.     I  will  send  him  to  you  forthwith." 
With  these  words  he  left   them,   and  soon  after  came 
Sa'd  b.  Mu'adh   himself,  hot  with  anger   against  As'ad  for 
the  patronage  he  had  extended  to  the  missionaries  of  Islam. 
Mus'ab  begged  him  not  to  condemn  the  new  faith  unheard, 
so  Sa'd  agreed  to  listen  and  soon  the  words  of  Mus'ab  touched 
him  and  brought  conviction  to  his  heart,  and  he  embraced 
the  faith  and  became  a   Muslim.     He  went   back  to  his 
people  burning  with  zeal  and  said  to  them,  "  Sons  of  'Abd 
al-Ashhal,  say,  what  am  I  to  you  ?  '      "  Thou  art  our  lord," 
they  answered,  "  thou  art  the  wisest  and  most  illustrious 


24  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

among  us."  "  Then  I  swear,"  replied  Sa'd,  "  nevermore 
to  speak  to  any  of  you  until  you  believe  in  God  and 
Muhammad,  His  apostle."  And  from  that  day,  all  the 
descendants  of  'Abd  al-Ashhal  embraced  Islam.1 

With  such  zeal  and  earnestness  was  the  preaching  of  the 
faith  pushed  forward  that  within  a  year  there  was  not  a 
family  among  the  Arabs  of  Medina  that  had  not  given  some 
of  its  members  to  swell  the  number  of  the  faithful,  with 
the  exception  of  one  branch  of  the  Banu  Aws,  which  held 
aloof  under  the  influence  of  Abu  Qays  b.  al-Aslat,  the 
poet. 

The  following  year,  when  the  time  of  the  annual  pilgrimage 
again  came  round,  a  band  of  converts,  amounting  to 
seventy-three  in  number,  accompanied  their  heathen 
fellow-countrymen  from  Yathrib  to  Mecca.  They  were 
commissioned  to  invite  Muhammad  to  take  refuge  in  Yathrib 
from  the  fury  of  his  enemies,  and  had  come  to  swear 
allegiance  to  him  as  their  prophet  and  their  leader.  All 
the  early  converts  who  had  before  met  the  Prophet  on  the 
two  preceding  pilgrimages,  returned  to  Mecca  on  this 
important  occasion,  and  Mus'ab  their  teacher  accompanied 
them.  Immediately  on  his  arrival  he  hurried  to  the 
prophet,  and  told  him  of  the  success  that  had  attended  his 
mission.  It  is  said  that  his  mother,  hearing  of  his  arrival, 
sent  a  message  to  him,  saying  :  "  Ah,  disobedient  son,  wilt 
thou  enter  a  city  in  which  thy  mother  dwelleth,  and  not 
first  visit  her  !  "  "  Nay,  verily,"  he  replied,  "  I  will  never 
visit  the  house  of  any  one  before  the  Prophet  of  God." 
So,  after  he  had  greeted  and  conferred  with  Muhammad, 
he  went  to  his  mother,  who  thus  accosted  him  :  "Then  I 
ween  thou  art  still  a  renegade."  He  answered,  "  I  follow 
the  prophet  of  the  Lord  and  the  true  faith  of  Islam."  "  Art 
thou  then  well  satisfied  with  the  miserable  way  thou  hast 
fared  in  the  land  of  Abyssinia  and  now  again  at  Yathrib  ?  " 
Now  he  perceived  that  she  was  meditating  his  imprisonment, 
and  exclaimed,  "  What  !  wilt  thou  force  a  man  from  his 
religion  ?  If  ye  seek  to  confine  me,  I  will  assuredly  slay 
the  first  person  that  layeth  hands  upon  me."  His  mother 
said,  "  Then  depart  from  my  presence,"  and  she  began  to 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  p.  291  sq. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF  MUHAMMAD        25 

weep.  Mus'ab  was  moved,  and  said,  "  Oh,  my  mother  ! 
I  give  thee  loving  counsel.  Testify  that  there  is  no  God 
but  the  Lord  and  that  Muhammad  is  His  servant  and 
messenger."  But  she  replied,  "  By  the  sparkling  stars  ! 
I  will  never  make  a  fool  of  myself  by  entering  into  thy 
religion.  I  wash  my  hands  of  thee  and  thy  concerns,  and 
cleave  steadfastly  unto  mine  own  faith." 

In  order  not  to  excite  suspicion  and  incur  the  hostility 
of  the  Quraysh,  a  secret  meeting  was  arranged  at  'Aqabah, 
the  scene  of  the  former  meeting  with  the  converts  of  the 
year  before.  Muhammad  came  accompanied  only  by  his 
uncle  'Abbas,  who,  though  he  was  still  an  idolater,  had 
been  admitted  into  the  secret.  'Abbas  opened  the  solemn 
conclave,  by  recommending  his  nephew  as  a  scion  of  one 
of  the  noblest  families  of  his  clan,  which  had  hitherto 
afforded  the  Prophet  protection,  although  rejecting  his 
teachings;  but  now  that  he  wished  to  take  refuge  among 
the  people  of  Yathrib,  they  should  bethink  themselves  well 
before  undertaking  such  a  charge,  and  resolve  not  to  go 
back  from  their  promise,  if  once  they  undertook  the  risk. 
Then  Bara  b.  Ma'rur,  one  of  the  Banu  Khazraj,  protesting 
that  they  were  firm  in  their  resolve  to  protect  the  Prophet 
of  God,  besought  him  to  declare  fully  what  he  wished  of 
them. 

Muhammad  began  b}'  reciting  to  them  some  portions  of 
the  Qur'an,  and  exhorted  them  to  be  true  to  the  faith  they 
had  professed  in  the  one  God  and  the  Prophet,  His  apostle; 
he  then  asked  them  to  defend  him  and  his  companions 
from  all  assailants  just  as  they  would  their  own  wives  and 
children.  Then  Bara  b.  Ma'rur,  taking  his  hand,  cried  out, 
"  Yea,  by  Him  who  sent  thee  as  His  Prophet,  and  through 
thee  revealed  unto  us  His  truth,  we  will  protect  thee  as  we 
would  our  own  bodies,  and  we  swear  allegiance  to  thee  as 
our  leader.  We  are  the  sons  of  battle  and  men  of  mail, 
which  we  have  inherited  as  worthy  sons  of  worthy  fore- 
fathers." So  they  all  in  turn,  taking  his  hand  in  theirs, 
swore  allegiance  to  him. 

As  soon  as  the  Quraysh  gained  intelligence  of  these  secret 
proceedings,  the  persecution  broke  out  afresh  against  the 
Muslims,  and  Muhammad  advised  them  to  flee  out  of  the 


26  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

city.     "  Depart  unto  Yathrib ;    for  the   Lord  hath   verily 
given  you  brethren  in  that  city,  and  a  home  in  which  ye 
may  find  refuge.' '     So  quietly,  by  twos  and  threes  they 
escaped  to  Yathrib,  where  they  were    heartily  welcomed, 
their  co-religionists  in  that  city  vying  with  one  another 
for  the  honour  of  entertaining  them,  and  supplying  them 
with  such  things  as  they  had  need  of.     Within  two  months 
nearly  all  the  Muslims  except  those  who  were  seized  and 
imprisoned  and  those  who  could  not  escape  from  captivity 
had  left  Mecca,  to  the  number  of  about  150.     There  is  a 
story  told  of  one  of  these  Muslims,  by  name  Suhayb,  whom 
Muhammad  called  "  the  first-fruits  of  Greece  "     (he  had 
been  a  Greek  slave,  and  being  set  free  by  his  master  had 
amassed  considerable  wealth  by  successful  trading) ;  when 
he  was  about  to  emigrate  the  Meccans  said  to  him,  "  Thou 
earnest  hither  in  need  and  penury;  but  thy  wealth  hath 
increased   with   us,   until   thou   hast   reached   thy   present 
prosperity;  and  now    thou  art  departing,  not  thyself  only, 
but  with  all  thy  property.     By  the  Lord,  that  shall  not  be ;  ' 
and  he  said,  "  If  I  relinquish  my  property,  will  ye  leave  me 
free  to  depart  ?  "     And  they  agreed  thereto;  so  he  parted 
with  all  his  goods.     And  when  that  was  told  unto  Muham- 
mad,  he  said,   "  Verily,   Suhayb  hath  made  a  profitable 
bargain." 

Muhammad  delayed  his  own  departure  (with  the  intention, 
no  doubt,  of  withdrawing  attention  from  his  faithful 
followers)  until  a  determined  plot  against  his  life  warned 
him  that  further  delay  might  be  fatal,  and  he  made  his 
escape  by  means  of  a  stratagem. 

His  first  care  after  his  arrival  in  Yathrib,  or  Medina  as 
it  was  called  from  this  period — Madman  al-Nabi,  the  city 
of  the  Prophet — was  to  build  a  mosque,  to  serve  both  as 
a  place  of  prayer  and  of  general  assembly  for  his  followers, 
who  had  hitherto  met  for  that  purpose  in  the  dwelling-place 
of  one  of  their  number.  The  worshippers  at  first  used  to 
turn  their  faces  in  the  direction  of  Jerusalem — an  arrange- 
ment most  probably  adopted  with  the  hope  of  gaining  over 
the  Jews.  In  many  other  ways,  by  constant  appeals  to 
their  own  sacred  Scriptures,  by  according  them  perfect 
freedom    of    worship    and    political    equality,    Muhammad 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        27 

endeavoured  to  conciliate  the  Jews,  but  they  met  his 
advances  with  scorn  and  derision.  When  all  hopes  of 
amalgamation  proved  fruitless  and  it  became  clear  that 
the  Jews  would  not  accept  him  as  their  Prophet,  Muhammad 
bade  his  followers  turn  their  faces  in  prayer  towards  the 
Ka'bah  in  Mecca,     (ii.  144.)  x 

This  change  of  direction  during  prayer  has  a  deeper 
significance  than  might  at  first  sight  appear.  It  was  really 
the  beginning  of  the  National  Life  of  Islam  :  it  established 
the  Ka'bah  at  Mecca  as  a  religious  centre  for  all  the  Muslim 
people,  just  as  from  time  immemorial  it  had  been  a  place 
of  pilgrimage  for  all  the  tribes  of  Arabia.  Of  similar 
importance  was  the  incorporation  of  the  ancient  Arab 
custom  of  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  into  the  circle  of  the  religious 
ordinances  of  Islam,  a  duty  that  was  to  be  performed  by 
every  Muslim  at  least  once  in  his  lifetime. 

There  are  many  passages  in  the  Qur'an  that  appeal  to 
this  germ  of  national  feeling  and  urge  the  people  of  Arabia 
to  realise  the  privilege  that  had  been  granted  them  of  a 
divine  revelation  in  their  own  language  and  by  the  lips  of 
one  of  their  own  countrymen. 

"  Verily  We  have  made  it  an  Arabic  Qur'an  that  ye  may 

haply  understand,     (xliii.  2-3.) 
"  And  thus  We  have  revealed  to  thee  an  Arabic  Qur'an, 

that  thou  mayest  warn  the  mother  of  cities  and  those 

around  it.     (xlii.  5.) 
"  And  if  We  had  made  it  a  Qur'an  in  a  foreign  tongue, 

they  had  surely  said,  '  Unless  its  verses  be  clearly 

explained  (we  will  not  receive  it).'     (xli.  44.) 
"  And  verily  We  have  set  before  men  in  this  Qur'an  every 

kind  of  parable  that  haply  they  be  monished  : 
"  An  Arabic  Qur'an,  free  from  tortuous  (wording),  that 

haply  they  may  fear  (God),     (xxxix.  28-29.) 
"  Verily  from  the  Lord  of  all  creatures  hath  this  (book) 

come  down,  ...  in  the  clear  Arabic  tongue,     (xxvi. 

192,  195.) 
"  And  We  have  only  made  it  (i.e.  the  Qur'an)  easy,  in 

1  The  appointment  of  the  fast  of  Ramadan  (Qur'an  ii.  179-84).  is  doubt- 
less another  sign  of  the  breaking  with  the  Jews,  the  fast  on  the  Day  of 
Atonement  being  thus  abolished. 


ii 


28  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

thine  own  tongue,  in  order  that  thou  mayest  announce 
glad  tidings  thereby  to  the  God-fearing,  and  that 
thou  mayest  warn  the  contentious  thereby.' '     (xix. 

97-) 
But  the  message  of  Islam  was  not  for  Arabia  only;  the 
whole  world  was  to  share  in  it.1  As  there  was  but  one 
God,  so  there  was  to  be  but  one  religion  into  which  all  men 
were  to  be  invited.  This  claim  to  be  universal,  to  hold 
sway  over  all  men  and  all  nations,  found  a  practical  illus- 
tration in  the  letters  which  Muhammad  is  said  to  have 
^  sent  in  the  year  a.d.  £88  (a.h.  6)  to  the  great  potentates 
of  that  time.  An  invitation  to  embrace  Islam  was  sent 
in  this  year  to  the  Emperor  Heraclius,  the  king  of  Persia, 
the  governor  of  Yaman,  the  governor  of  Egypt  and  the 
king  of  Abyssinia.  The  letter  to  Heraclius  is  said  to  have 
been  as  follows  :— "  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Merciful,  the 
Compassionate,  Muhammad,  who  is  the  servant  of  God  and 
His  apostle,  to  Hiraql  the  Qaysar  of  Rum.  Peace  be  on 
whoever  has  gone  on  the  straight  road.  After  this  I  say, 
Verily  I  call  you  to  Islam.  Embrace  Islam,  and  God  will 
reward  you  twofold.  If  you  turn  away  from  the  offer  of 
Islam,  then  on  you  be  the  sins  of  your  people.  O  people 
of  the  Book,  come  towards  a  creed  which  is  fit  both  for  us 
and  for  you.  It  is  this — to  worship  none  but  God,  and  not 
to  associate  anything  with  God,  and  not  to  call  others  God. 
Therefore,  O  ye  people  of  the  Book,  if  ye  refuse,  beware. 
We  are  Muslims  and  our  religion  is  Islam.'5  However 
absurd  this  summons  may  have  seemed  to  those  who  then 
received  it,  succeeding  years  showed  that  it  was  dictated 
by  no  empty  enthusiasm.2  These  letters  only  gave  a  more 
open  and  widespread  expression  to  the  claim  to  the  universal 
acceptance  which  is  repeatedly  made  for  Islam  in  the 
Qur'an. 

1  "  Aber  Gottes  Botschaft  ist  nicht  auf  die  Araber  beschrankt.  Sein 
Wille  gilt  fur  alle  Creatur,  es  heischt  unbedingtcn  Gehorsam  von  aller 
Menschheit,  und  dass  Muhammed  als  sein  Bote  densclben  Gehorsam  zu 
heischen  berechtigt  und  verpflichtet  sei,  scheint  von  Anfang  an  ein  mte- 
grirender  Bestandtheil  seines  Gedankensystem  gewesen  zu  sein."  (Sachau, 
PD.  2Q^-4.)  Goldziher  (Vorlesungen  iiber  den  Islam,  p.  25  sqq.)  and  Noldeke 
(WZKM,  vol.  xxi.  pp.  307-8)  expiess  a  similar  opinion. 

2  On  the  doubtful  authenticity  of  these  letters,  see  Caetani,  vol.  1. 
p.  725  sqq. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE  OF  MUHAMMAD        29 

"  Of  a  truth  it  (i.e.  the  Qur'an)  is  no  other  than  an  ad- 
monition to  all  created  beings,  and  after  a  time  shall 
ye  surely  know  its  message,     (xxxviii.  87-88.) 

"  This  (book)  is  no  other  than  an  admonition  and  a  clear 
Qur'an,  to  warn  whoever  liveth;  and  that  against 
the  unbelievers  sentence  may  be  justly  given, 
(xxxvi.  69-70.) 

"  We  have  not  sent  thee  save  as  a  mercy  to  all  created 
beings,     (xxi.  107.) 

"  Blessed  is  He  who  hath  sent  down  al-Furqan  upon 
His  servant,  that  he  may  be  a  warner  unto  all  created 
beings,     (xxv.  1.) 

"  And  We  have  not  sent  thee  otherwise  than  to  mankind 
at  large,  to  announce  and  to  warn,     (xxxiv.  27.) 

"  He  it  is  who  hath  sent  His  apostle  with  guidance  and 
the  religion  of  truth,  that  He  may  make  it  victorious 
over  every  other  religion,  though  the  polytheists  are 
averse  to  it."     (lxi.  9.) 

In  the  hour  of  his  deepest  despair,  when  the  people  of 
Mecca  persistently  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  words  of  their 
prophet  (xvi,  23,  114,  etc.),  when  the  converts  he  had  made 
were  tortured  until  they  recanted  (xvi.  108),  and  others  were 
forced  to  flee  from  the  country  to  escape  the  rage  of  their 
persecutors  (xvi.  43,  in) — then  was  delivered  the  promise, 
"  One  day  we  will  raise  up  a  witness  out  of  every  nation." 
(xvi.  86.)  1 

This  claim  upon  the  acceptance  of  all  mankind  which  the 
Prophet  makes  in  these  passages  is  further  prophetically 
indicated  in  the  words  "  first-fruits  of  Abyssinia,"  used  by 
Muhammad  in  reference  to  Bilal,  and  "  first-fruits  of  Greece," 
to  Suhayb ;  Salman,  the  first  Persian  convert,  was  a  Christian 
slave  in  Medina,  who  embraced   the  new  faith   in  the  first 

1  It  seems  strange  that  in  the  face  of  these  passages,  some  have  denied 
that  Islam  was  originally  intended  by  its  founder  to  be  a  universal  religion. 
Thus  Sir  William  Muir  says,  "  That  the  heritage  of  Islam  is  the  world,  was 
an  afterthought.  The  idea,  spite  of  much  prophetic  tradition,  had  been 
conceived  but  dimly,  if  at  all,  by  Mahomet  himself.  His  world  was  Arabia, 
and  for  it  the  new  dispensation  was  ordained.  From  first  to  last  the 
summons  was  to  Arabs  and  to  none  other.  .  .  .  The  seed  of  a  universal 
creed  had  indeed  been  sown ;  but  that  it  ever  germinated  was  due  to  cir- 
cumstance rather  than  design."  (The  Caliphate,  pp.  43-4.)  Caetani  is 
the  latest  exponent  of  this  view.     (Annali  dell'  Islam,  vol.  v.  pp.  323  -4.) 


30  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

year  of  the  Hi j rah.  Thus  long  before  any  career  of  con- 
quest was  so  much  as  dreamed  of,  the  Prophet  had  clearly 
shown  that  Islam  was  not  to  be  confined  to  the  Arab  race. 
The  following  account  of  the  sending  out  of  missionaries 
to  preach  Islam  to  all  nations,  points  to  the  same  claim  to 
be  a  universal  religion  :  "  The  Apostle  of  God  said  to  his 
companions,  '  Come  to  me  all  of  you  early  in  the  morning.' 
After  the  morning  prayer  he  spent  some  time  in  praising 
and  supplicating  God,  as  was  his  wont;  then  he  turned  to 
them  and  sent  forth  some  in  one  direction  and  others  in 
another,  and  said  :  '  Be  faithful  to  God  in  your  dealings 
with  His  servants  (i.e.  with  men),  for  whosoever  is  entrusted 
with  any  matter  that  concerns  mankind  and  is  not  faithful 
in  his  service  of  them,  to  him  God  shuts  the  gate  of  Paradise  : 
go  forth  and  be  not  like  the  messengers  of  Jesus,  the  son  of 
Mary,  for  they  went  only  to  those  that  lived  near  and 
neglected  those  that  dwelt  in  far  countries.'  Then  each  of 
these  messengers  came  to  speak  the  language  of  the  people 
to  whom  he  was  sent.  When  this  was  told  to  the  Prophet 
he  said,  '  This  is  the  greatest  of  the  duties  that  they  owe  to 
God  with  respect  to  His  servants.'  "  1 

The  proof  of  the  universality  of  Islam,  of  its  claim  on 
the  acceptance  of  all  men,  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the 
religion  divinely  appointed  for  the  whole  human  race  and 
was  now  revealed  to  them  anew  through  Muhammad,  "  the 
seal  of  the  prophets  "  (xxxiii.  40),  as  it  had  been  to  former 
generations  by  other  prophets. 

"  Men  were  of  one  religion  only  :  then  they  disagreed  one 
with  another  and  had  not  a  decree  (of  respite)  previ- 
ously gone  forth  from  thy  Lord,  judgment  would 
surely  have  been  given  between  them  in  the  matter 
wherein  they  disagree,  (x.  20.) 
"  I  am  no  apostle  of  new  doctrines,  (xlvi.  8.) 
"  Mankind  was  but  one  people  :  then  God  raised  up 
prophets  to  announce  glad  tidings  and  to  warn  :  and 
He  sent  down  with  them  the  Book  with  the  Truth, 
that  it  might  decide  the  disputes  of  men  :  and  none 
disagreed  save  those  to  whom  the  book  had  been 

1  Ibn  Sa'd,  §  10.  This  story  may  indeed  be  apocryphal,  but  is  significant 
at  least  of  the  early  realisation  of  the  missionary  character  of  Islam. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD       31 

given,    after    the    clear    tokens    had   reached    them, 

through   mutual   jealousy.     And   God   guided   those 

who  believed  into  the  truth  concerning  which  they 

had  disagreed,  by  His  will ;    and  God  guideth  whom 

He  pleaseth  into  the  straight  path.     (ii.  209.) 
"  And    We   revealed     to   thee,    '  follow   the   religion   of 

Abraham,  the  sound  in  faith,  for  he  was  not  of  those 

who  join  gods  with  God.'     (xvi.  124.) 
"  Say  :  As  for  me,  my  Lord  hath  guided  me  into  a  straight 

path  :   a   true   faith,   the   religion   of  Abraham,   the 

sound  in  faith;  for  he  was  not  of  those  who  join  gods 

with  God.     (vi.  162.) 
"  Say  :  Nay,  the  religion  of  Abraham,  the  sound  in  faith 

and  not  one  of  those  who  join  gods  with  God  (is  our 

religion),     (ii.  129.) 
"  Say  :  God  speaketh  truth.     Follow  therefore  the  religion 
'  of  Abraham,  he  being  a  Hanif  and  not  one  of  those 

who  join  other  gods  with  God. 
"  Verily  the  first  temple  that  was  set  up  for  men  was  that 

which  is  in  Bakka,  blessed  and  a  guidance  for  all 

created  beings,     (hi.  89,  90.) 
"  And  who  hath  a  better  religion  than  he  who  resigneth 

himself  to  God,  who  doth  what  is  good  and  followeth 

the  faith  of  Abraham,  the  sound  in  faith  ?     (iv.  124.) 
"  He  hath  elected  you,  and  hath  not  laid  on  you  any 

hardship  in  religion,  the  faith  of  your  father  Abraham. 

He  hath  named  you  the  Muslims."     (xx.  yy.) 

But  to  return  to  Muhammad  in  Medina.  In  order  properly 
to  appreciate  his  position  after  the  Flight,  it  is  important  to 
remember  the  peculiar  character  of  Arab  society  at  that 
time,  as  far  at  least  as  this  part  of  the  peninsula  was  con- 
cerned. There  was  an  entire  absence  of  any  organised 
administrative  or  judicial  system  such  as  in  modern  times 
we  connect  with  the  idea  of  a  government.  Each  tribe 
or  clan  formed  a  separate  and  absolutely  independent  body, 
and  this  independence  extended  itself  also  to  the  individual 
members  of  the  tribe,  each  of  whom  recognised  the  authority, 
or  leadership  of  his  chief  only  as  being  the  exponent  of 
a  public  opinion  which  he  himself  happened  to  share ;  but 


32  THE    PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

he  was  quite  at  liberty  to  refuse  his  conformity  to  the 
(even)  unanimous  resolve  of  his  fellow  clansmen.  Further, 
there  was  no  regular  transmission  of  the  office  of  chieftain  ; 
but  he  was  generally  chosen  as  being  the  oldest  member 
of  the  richest  and  most  powerful  family  of  the  clan,  and  as 
being  personally  most  qualified  to  command  respect.  If 
such  a  tribe  became  too  numerous,  it  would  split  up  into 
several  divisions,  each  of  which  continued  to  enjoy  a  separate 
and  independent  existence,  uniting  only  on  some  extra- 
ordinary occasion  for  common  self-defence  or  some  more 
than  usually  important  warlike  expedition.  We  can  thus 
understand  how  Muhammad  could  establish  himself  in 
Medina  at  the  head  of  a  large  and  increasing  body  of  ad- 
herents who  looked  up  to  him  as  their  head  and  leader  and 
acknowledged  no  other  authority, — without  exciting  any 
feeling  of  insecurity,  or  any  fear  of  encroachment  on  recog- 
nised authority,  such  as  would  have  arisen  in  a  city  of  ancient 
Greece  or  any  similarly  organised  community.  Muhammad 
thus  exercised  temporal  authority  over  his  people  just  as 
any  other  independent  chief  might  have  done,  the  only 
difference  being  that  in  the  case  of  the  Muslims  a  religious 
bond  took  the  place  of  family  and  blood  ties. 

Islam  thus  became  what,  in  theory  at  least,  it  has  always 
remained — a  political  as  well  as  a  religious  system. 

"  It  was  Muhammad's  desire  to  found  a  new  religion,  and 
in  this  he  succeeded;  but  at  the  same  time  he  founded  a 
political  system  of  an  entirely  new  and  peculiar  character. 
At  first  his  only  wish  was  to  convert  his  fellow-countrymen 
to  the  belief  in  the  One  God — Allah;  but  along  with  this 
he  brought  about  the  overthrow  of  the  old  system  of  govern- 
ment in  his  native  city,  and  in  place  of  the  tribal  aristocracy 
under  which  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  was  shared  in 
common  by  the  ruling  families,  he  substituted  an  absolute 
theocratic  monarchy,  with  himself  at  the  head  as  vicar 
of  God  upon  earth. 

"  Even  before  his  death  almost  all  Arabia  had  submitted 
to  him;  Arabia  that  had  never  before  obeyed  one  prince, 
suddenly  exhibits  a  political  unity  and  swears  allegiance 
to  the  will  of  an  absolute  ruler.  Out  of  the  numerous 
tribes,  big  and  small,   of  a  hundred  different  kinds  that 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE  OF   MUHAMMAD        33 

were  incessantly  at  feud  with  one  another,  Muhammad's 
word  created  a  nation.  The  idea  of  a  common  religion 
under  one  common  head  bound  the  different  tribes  together 
into  one  political  organism  which  developed  its  peculiar 
characteristics  with  surprising  rapidity.  Now  only  one 
great  idea  could  have  produced  this  result,  viz.  the  principle 
of  national  life  in  heathen  Arabia.  The  clan-system  was 
thus  for  the  first  time,  if  not  entirely  crushed — (that  would 
have  been  impossible) — yet  made  subordinate  to  the  feeling 
of  religious  unity.  The  great  work  succeeded,  and  when 
Muhammad  died  there  prevailed  over  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  Arabia  a  peace  of  God  such  as  the  Arab  tribes,  with 
their  love  of  plunder  and  revenge,  had  never  known; 
it  was  the  religion  of  Islam  that  had  brought  about  this 
reconciliation."  1 

Even  in  the  case  of  death,  the  claims  of  relationship  were 
set  aside  and  the  bond-brother  inherited  all  the  property 
of  his  deceased  companion.  But  after  the  battle  of  Badr, 
when  such  an  artificial  bond  was  no  longer  needed  to  unite 
his  followers,  it  was  abolished;  such  an  arrangement  was 
only  necessary  so  long  as  the  number  of  the  Muslims  was 
still  small  and  the  corporate  life  of  Islam  a  novelty ;  more- 
over Muhammad  had  lived  in  Medina  for  a  very  short 
space  of  time  before  the  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of 
his  adherents  made  so  communistic  a  social  system  almost 
impracticable. 

It  was  only  to  be  expected  that  the  growth  of  an  inde- 
pendent political  body  composed  of  refugees  from  Mecca, 
located  in  a  hostile  city,  should  eventually  lead  to  an  out- 
break of  hostilities ;  and,  as  is  well  known,  every  biography  j 
of  Muhammad  is  largely  taken  up  with  the  account  of  a 
long  series  of  petty  encounters  and  bloody  battles  between 
his  followers  and  the  Quraysh  of  Mecca,  ending  in  his 
triumphal  entry  into  that  city  in  a.d.  630,  and  of  his  hostile 
relations  with  numerous  other  tribes,  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  a.d.  633. 

To  give  any  account  of  these  campaigns  is  beyond  the 
scope  of  the  present  work,  but  it  is  important  to  show  that 
Muhammad,  when  he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  band 

1  A.  von  Kremer  (3),  pp.  309,  310. 
D 


34  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

of  armed  followers,  was  not  transformed  at  once,  as  some 
would  have  us  believe,  from  a  peaceful  preacher  into  a 
fanatic,  sword  in  hand,  forcing  his  religion  on  whomsoever 
he  could.1 

It  has  been  frequently  asserted  by  European  writers 
that  from  the  date  of  Muhammad's  migration  to  Medina, 
and  from  the  altered  circumstances  of  his  life  there,  the 
Prophet  appears  in  an  entirely  new  character.  He  is  no 
longer  the  preacher,  the  warner,  the  apostle  of  God  to  men, 
whom  he  would  persuade  of  the  truth  of  the  religion  re- 
vealed to  him,  but  now  he  appears  rather  as  the  unscrupulous 
bigot,  using  all  means  at  his  disposal  of  force  and  statecraft 
to  assert  himself  and  his  opinions. 

But  it  is  false  to  suppose  that  Muhammad  in  Medina 
laid  aside  his  role  of  preacher  and  missionary  of  Islam,  or 
that  when  he  had  a  large  army  at  his  command,  he  ceased 
to  invite  unbelievers  to  accept  the  faith.  Ibn  Sa'd  gives 
a  number  of  letters  written  by  the  Prophet  from  Medina 
to  chiefs  and  other  members  of  different  Arabian  tribes, 
in  addition  to  those  addressed  to  potentates  living  beyond 
the  limits  of  Arabia,  inviting  them  to  embrace  Islam;  and 
in  the  following  pages  will  be  found  instances  of  his  having 
sent  missionaries  to  preach  the  faith  to  the  unconverted 
members  of  their  tribes,  whose  very  ill-success  in  some  cases 
is  a  sign  of  the  genuinely  missionary  character  of  their 
efforts  and  the  absence  of  an  appeal  to  force.  A  typical 
example  of  such  an  unsuccessful  mission  is  that  sent  to 
preach  Islam  to  the  Banu  'Amir  b.  Sa'sa'ah  in  the  year 
a.h.  4.  The  chief  of  this  tribe,  Abu  Bara  'Amir,  visited 
Muhammad  in  Medina,  listened  to  his  teaching,  but  de- 
clined to  become  a  convert ;  he  seemed,  however,  to  be 
favourably  disposed  towards  the  new  faith  and  asked  the 
Prophet  to  send  some  of  his  followers  to  Najd  to  preach 
to  the  people  of  that  country.  The  Prophet  sent  a  party 
of  forty  Muslims,  most  of  them  young  men  of  Medina,  who 
were  skilled  in  reciting  the  Qur'an,  and  had  been  accustomed 
to  meet  together  at  night  for  study  and  prayer.     But  in 

1  This  would  seem  to  be  acknowledged  even  by  Muir,  when  speaking  of 
the  massacre  of  the  Banu  Qurayzah  (a.h.  6)  :  "  The  ostensible  grounds 
upon  which  Mahomet  proceeded  were  purely  political,  for  as  yet  he  did 
not  profess  to  force  men  to  join  Islam,  or  to  punish  them  for  not  embracing 
it."     (Muir  (2),  vol.  iii.  p.  282.) 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE  OF  MUHAMMAD       35 

spite  of  the  safe  conduct  given  them  by  Abu  Bara  'Amir, 
they  were  treacherously  murdered  and  three  only  of  the 
party  escaped  with  their  lives.1 

The  successes  of  the  Muslim  arms,  however,  attracted 
every  day  members  of  various  tribes,  particularly  those  in 
the  vicinity  of  Medina,  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  followers 
of  the  Prophet;  and  "  the  courteous  treatment  which  the 
deputations  of  these  various  clans  experienced  from  the 
Prophet,  his  ready  attention  to  their  grievances,  the  wisdom 
with  which  he  composed  their  disputes,  and  the  politic 
assignments  of  territory  by  which  he  rewarded  an  early 
declaration  in  favour  of  Islam,  made  his  name  to  be  popular 
and  spread  his  fame  as  a  great  and  generous  prince  through- 
out the  Peninsula."  2 

It  not  unfrequently  happened  that  one  member  of  a  tribe 
would  come  to  the  Prophet  in  Medina  and  return  home  as 
a  missionary  of  Islam  to  convert  his  brethren ;  we  have 
the  following  account  of  such  a  conversion  in  the  year  5  (A.H.). 

The  Banu  Sa'd  b.  Bakr  sent  one  of  their  number,  by 
name  Dimam  b.  Tha'labah  as  their  envoy  to  the  Prophet. 
He  came  and  made  his  camel  kneel  down  at  the  gate  of  the 
mosque  and  tied  up  its  fore-leg.  Then  he  went  into  the 
mosque,  where  the  Prophet  was  sitting  with  his  companions. 
He  went  up  close  to  them  and  said,  "  Which  among  you 
is  the  son  of  'Abd  al-Muttalib  ?  "  "I  am,"  replied  the 
Prophet.  "  Art  thou  Muhammad  ?  "  "  Yes,"  was  the 
answer.  "  Then,  if  thou  wilt  not  take  it  amiss,  I  would 
fain  ask  thee  some  weighty  questions."  "  Nay,  ask  what 
thou  wilt,"  answered  the  Prophet.  "  I  adjure  thee  by 
Allah,  thy  God  and  the  God  of  those  who  were  before  thee 
and  of  those  who  are  to  come  after  thee,  hath  Allah  sent 
thee  as  a  prophet  unto  us  ?  "  Muhammad  answered,  "  Yea, 
by  Allah."  He  continued,  "  I  adjure  thee  by  Allah,  thy 
God  and  the  God  of  those  who  were  before  thee  and  of  those 
who  are  to  come  after  thee,  hath  He  commanded  thee  to 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  p.  648  sq. 

2  Muir  (2),  vol.  iv.  pp.  107-8.  See  also  Caetani,  vol.  i.  p.  663.  "  Assai 
piu  che  tutte  le  prediche  del  Prof  eta,  assai  piu  che  tutta  la  bonta  delle 
dottrine  islamiche,  siffatti  vantaggi  militari  contribuirono  al  aumentare 
il  numero  dei  seguaci.  La  rapidita  della  diftusione  dell'  Islam  divenne 
in  special  modo  sensibile  per  il  contegno  et  per  lo  spirito  di  tolleranza,  di 
liberta,  e  di  opportunismo,  che  diresse  il  Profeta  nei  suoi  rapporti  con  i 
convertiti." 


36  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

bid  us  worship  Him  alone,  and  to  associate  naught  else 
with  Him  and  to  abandon  these  idols  that  our  fathers 
worshipped  ?  ;  Muhammad  answered,  "  Yea,  by  Allah." 
Then  he  questioned  the  Prophet  concerning  all  the  ordi- 
nances of  Islam,  one  after  another,  prayer  and  fasting, 
pilgrimage,  etc.,  solemnly  adjuring  him  as  before.  At  the 
end  he  said,  "  Then  I  bear  witness  that  there  is  no  God 
save  Allah  and  I  bear  witness  that  Muhammad  is  the 
Prophet  of  Allah,  and  I  will  observe  these  ordinances  and 
shun  what  thou  hast  forbidden,  adding  nothing  thereto, 
and  taking  nothing  away."  Then  he  turned  away  and 
loosened  his  camel  and  returned  unto  his  own  people,  and 
when  he  had  gathered  them  together,  the  first  words  he 
spoke  unto  them  were  :  "  Vile  things  are  Lat  and  'Uzza." 
They  cried  out,  "  Hold  !  Dimam,  take  heed  of  leprosy  or 
madness  !  '  "  Fie  on  you  !  '  he  replied.  "  By  Allah  ! 
they  can  neither  work  you  weal  nor  woe,  for  Allah  has  sent 
a  Prophet  and  revealed  to  him  a  book,  whereby  he  delivers 
you  from  your  evil  plight ;  I  bear  witness  that  there  is  no 
God  save  Allah  alone  and  that  Muhammad  is  His  servant 
and  His  Prophet ;  and  I  have  brought  you  tidings  of  what 
he  enjoins  and  what  he  forbids."  The  story  goes  on  that 
ere  nightfall  there  was  not  a  man  or  woman  in  the  camp 
who  had  not  accepted  Islam.1 

Another  such  missionary  was  'Amr  b.  Murrah,  belonging 
to  the  tribe  of  the  Banu  Juhaynah,  who  dwelt  between  Medina 
and  the  Red  Sea.  The  date  of  his  conversion  was  prior 
to  the  Flight,  in  the  same  year  (a.h.  5),  and  he  thus  describes 
it :  "  We  had  an  idol  that  we  worshipped,  and  I  was  the 
guardian  of  its  shrine.  When  I  heard  of  the  Prophet, 
I  broke  it  in  pieces  and  set  off  to  Muhammad,  where  I 
accepted  Islam  and  bore  witness  to  the  truth,  and  believed 
on  what  Muhammad  declared  to  be  allowed  and  forbidden. 
And  to  this  my  verses  refer  :  '  I  bear  witness  that  God  is 
Truth  and  that  I  am  the  first  to  abandon  the  gods  of  stones, 
and  I  have  girded  up  my  loins  to  make  my  way  to  you  over 
rough  ways  and  smooth,  to  join  myself  to  him  who  in  himself  j 
and  for  his  ancestry  is  the  noblest  of  men,  the  apostle  of 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  p.  943-4.     (This  story  rests  on  somewhat  doubtful  authority, 
cf.  Caetani,  vol.  i.  p.  Oio.) 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        37 

the  Lord  whose  throne  is  above  the  clouds.'  "  He  was  sent 
by  Muhammad  to  preach  Islam  to  his  tribe,  and  his  efforts 
were  crowned  with  such  success  that  there  was  only  one  man 
who  refused  to  listen  to  his  exhortations.1 

When  the  truce  of  Hudaybiyyah  (a.h.  6)  made  friendly 
relations  with  the  people  of  Mecca  possible,  many  persons 
of  that  city,  who  had  had  the  opportunity  of  listening  to 
the  teaching  of  Muhammad  in  the  early  days  of  his  mission, 
and  among  them  some  men  of  great  influence,  came  out  to 
Medina,  to  embrace  the  faith  of  Islam. 

The  continual  warfare  carried  on  with  the  people  of  Mecca 
had  hitherto  kept  the  tribes  to  the  south  of  that  city  almost 
entirely  outside  the  influence  of  the  new  religion.  But 
this  truce  now  made  communications  with  southern  Arabia 
possible,  and  a  small  band  from  the  tribe  of  the  Banu  Daws 
came  from  the  mountains  that  form  the  northern  boundary 
of  Yaman,  and  joined  themselves  to  the  Prophet  in  Medina. 
Even  before  the  appearance  of  Muhammad,  there  were 
some  members  of  this  tribe  who  had  had  glimmerings  of 
a  higher  religion  than  the  idolatry  prevailing  around  them, 
and  argued  that  the  world  must  have  had  a  creator,  though 
they  knew  not  who  he  was;  and  when  Muhammad  came 
forward  as  the  apostle  of  this  creator,  one  of  these  men,  by 
name  Tufayl  b.  'Amr,  came  to  Mecca  to  learn  who  the 
creator  was. 

Though  warned  by  the  Quraysh  of  the  dangerous  influence 
,  that  Muhammad  might  exercise  over  him  if  he  entered  into 
I  conversation   with  him,   he   followed   the   Prophet   to   his 
house  one  day,  after  watching  him  at  prayer  by  the  Ka'bah. 
;  Muhammad  expounded  to  him  the  doctrines  of  Islam,  and 
!  Tufayl  left  Mecca  full  of  zeal  for  the  new  faith.     On  his 
return  home  he  succeeded  in  converting  his  father  and  his 
wife,  but  found  his  fellow-tribesmen  unwilling  to  abandon 
I  their    old    idolatrous    worship.     Disheartened    at    the    ill- 
success  of  his  mission,  he  returned  to  the  Prophet  and  be- 
sought him  to  call  down  the  curse  of  God  on  the  Banu 
Daws;   but   Muhammad   encouraged   him   to   persevere   in 
ihis  efforts,  saying,   "  Return  to  thy  people  and  summon 
jthem  to  the  faith,  but  deal  gently  with  them."     At  the 

Ibn  Sa'd,  §  118. 


38  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

same  time  he  prayed,  "  Oh  God  !  guide  the  Banii  Daws  in 
the  right  way."  The  success  of  Tufayl's  propaganda  was 
such  that  in  the  year  a.h.  7  he  came  to  Medina  with  between 
seventy  and  eighty  families  of  his  tribesmen  who  had  been 
won  over  to  the  faith  of  Islam,  and  after  the  triumphal 
entry  of  Muhammad  into  Mecca,  Tufayl  set  fire  to  the 
block  of  wood  that  had  hitherto  been  venerated  as  the  idol 
of  the  tribe.1 

In  a.h.  7,  fifteen  more  tribes  submitted  to  the  Prophet, 
and  after  the  surrender  of  Mecca  in  a.h.  8,  the  ascendancy 
of  Islam  was  assured,  and  those  Arabs  who  had  held  aloof, 
saying,  "  Let  Muhammad  and  his  fellow-tribesmen  fight  it 
out;  if  he  is  victorious,  then  is  he  a  genuine  prophet,"  2 
now  hastened  to  give  in  their  allegiance  to  the  new  religion. 
Among  those  who  came  in  after  the  fall  of    Mecca  were 
some  of  the  most  bitter  persecutors  of  Muhammad  in  the 
earlier  days  of  his  mission,  to  whom  his  noble  forbearance 
and  forgiveness  now  gave  a  place  in  the  brotherhood  of 
Islam.     The   following  year  witnessed  the  martyrdom   of 
'Urwah  b.  Mas'ud,  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  people  of  Ta/if, 
which  city  the  Muslims  had  unsuccessfully  attempted  to 
capture.     He  had  been  absent  at  that  time  in  Yaman,  and 
returned  from  his  journey  shortly  after  the  raising  of  the 
siege.      He   had    met    the    Prophet    two    years    before    at 
Hudaybiyyah,  and  had  conceived  a  profound  veneration  for 
him,  and  now  came  to  Medina  to  embrace  the  new  faith. 
In  the  ardour  of  his  zeal  he  offered  to  go  to  Ta'if  to  convert 
his  fellow-countrymen,  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Mu- 
hammad to  dissuade  him  from  so  dangerous  an  undertaking, 
he  returned  to  his  native  city,  publicly  declared  that  he  had 
renounced  idolatry,  and  called  upon  the  people  to  follow 
his  example.     While  he  was  preaching,  he  was  mortally 
wounded  by  an  arrow,  and  died  giving  thanks  to  God  for 
having   granted   him   the   glory   of   martyrdom.     A   more 
successful  missionary  effort  was  made  by  another  follower 
of  the  Prophet  in  Yaman — probably  a  year  later — of  which 
we  have  the  following  graphic  account  :  "  The  apostle  of 
God    wrote   to    al-Harith    and    Masruh,    and    Nu'aym    b. 
'Abd  al-Kulal  of  Himyar  :  '  Peace  be  upon  you  so  long  as 

1  Ibn  Ishaq,  pp.  252-4,  8  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  t.  i.  p.  341, 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD        39 

ye  believe  on  God  and  His  apostle.  God  is  one  God,  there 
is  no  partner  with  Him.  He  sent  Moses  with  his  signs, 
and  created  Jesus  with  his  words.  The  Jews  say,  "  Ezra 
is  the  Son  of  God,"  and  the  Christians  say,  "  God  is  one 
of  three,  and  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God."  He  sent  the  letter 
by  'Ayyash  b.  Abi  Rabi'ah  al-Makhzumi.  and  said : 
'  When  you  reach  their  city,  go  not  in  by  night,  but  wait 
until  the  morning;  then  carefully  perform  your  ablutions, 
and  pray  with  two  prostrations,  and  ask  God  to  bless  you 
with  success  and  a  friendly  reception,  and  to  keep  you  safe 
from  harm.  Then  take  my  letter  in  your  right  hand,  and 
deliver  it  with  your  right  hand  into  their  right  hands,  and 
they  will  receive  it.  And  recite  to  them,  "  The  unbelievers 
among  the  people  of  the  Book  and  the  polytheists  did  not 
waver,"  etc.  (Surah  98),  to  the  end  of  the  Surah;  when  you 
have  finished,  say,  "  Muhammad  has  believed,  and  I  am  the 
first  to  believe."  And  you  will  be  able  to  meet  every 
objection  they  bring  against  you,  and  every  glittering  book 
that  they  recite  to  you  will  lose  its  light.  And  when  they 
speak  in  a  foreign  tongue,  say,  "  Translate  it,"  and  say  to 
them,  "  God  is  sufficient  for  me ;  I  believe  in  the  Book  sent 
down  by  Him,  and  I  am  commanded  to  do  justice  among 
you ;  God  is  our  Lord  and  your  Lord ;  to  us  belong  our  works, 
and  to  you  belong  your  works;  there  is  no  strife  between 
us  and  you ;  God  will  unite  us,  and  unto  Him  we  must 
return."  If  they  now  accept  Islam,  then  ask  them  for 
their  three  rods,  before  which  they  gather  together  to  pray, 
one  rod  of  tamarisk  that  is  spotted  white  and  yellow,  and 
one  knotted  like  a  cane,  and  one  black  like  ebony.  Bring 
the  rods  out  and  burn  them  in  the  market-place.'  So  I 
set  out,"  tells  'Ayyash,  "  to  do  as  the  Apostle  of  God  had 
bid  me.  When  I  arrived,  I  found  that  all  the  people  had 
decked  themselves  out  for  a  festival :  I  walked  on  to  see 
them,  and  came  at  last  to  three  enormous  curtains  hung  in 
front  of  three  doorways.  I  lifted  the  curtain  and  entered  the 
middle  door,  and  found  people  collected  in  the  courtyard  of 
the  building.  I  introduced  myself  to  them  as  the  messenger 
of  the  Apostle  of  God,  and  did  as  he  had  bidden  me ;  and  they 
gave  heed  to  my  words,  and  it  fell  out  as  he  had  said."  l 

»  Vdxl  Sa'd,  §  56, 


4o  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

In  a.h.  9  a  deputation  of  thirteen  men  from  the  Banu 
Kilab,  a  branch  of  the  Banu  'Amir  b.  Sa'sa'ah,  came  to 
the  Prophet  and  informed  him  that  one  of  his  followers, 
Dahhak  b.  Sufyan,  had  come  to  them,  reciting  the  Qur'an 
and  teaching  the  doctrines  of  Islam,  and  that  his  preaching 
had  won  over  their  tribe  to  the  new  faith.1  Another 
branch  of  the  same  tribe,  the  Banu  Ru'as  b.  Kilab,  was 
converted  by  one  of  its  members,  named  'Amr  b.  Malik, 
who  had  been  to  Medina  and  accepted  Islam,  and  then 
returned  to  his  fellow  tribes  and  persuaded  them  to  follow 
his  example.2 

In  the  same  year  a  less  successful  attempt  was  made  by 
a  new  convert,   Wathilah  b.  al-Asqa',  to  induce  his  clan 
to  accept  the  faith  that  he  himself  had  embraced  after  an 
interview  with  the   Prophet.     His   father  scornfully   cast 
him  off,  saying,  "  By  God  !  I  will  never  speak  a  word  to 
you  again,"  and  none  were  found  willing  to  believe  the 
doctrines  he  preached  with  the  exception  of  his  sister,  who 
provided  him  with  the  means  of  returning  to  the  Prophet  at 
Medina.3     This  ninth  year  of  the  Hijrah  has  been  called  the 
year  of  the  deputations,  because  of  the  enormous  number 
of  Anb  tribes  and  cities  that  now  sent  delegates  to  the 
Propl  .t,   to   give   in   their   submission.     The   introduction 
into  Arab  society  of  a  new  principle  of  social  union  in  the 
brotherhood  of  Islam  had  already  begun  to  weaken  the  bind- 
ing force  of  the  old  tribal  ideal,  which  erected  the  fabric  of 
society  on  the  basis  of  blood-relationship.     The  conversion 
of  an  individual  and  his  reception  into  the  new  society  was 
a  breach  of  one  of  the  most  fundamental  laws  of  Arab  life, 
and  its  frequent  occurrence  had  acted  as  a  powerful  solvent 
on  tribal  organisation  and  had  left  it  weak  in  the  face  of 
a  national  life  so  enthusiastic  and  firmly-knit  as  that  of 
the    Muslims    had    become.     The    Arab    tribes    were   thus 
impelled  to  give  in  their  submission  to  the  Prophet,  not 
merely  as  the  head  of  the  strongest  military  force  in  Arabia, 
but  as  the  exponent  of  a  theory  of  social  life  that  was  making 
all  others  weak  and  ineffective.4     Muhammad  had  succeeded 
in  introducing  into  the  anarchical  society  of  his  time   a 

i  Ibn  Sa'd,  §  85.  2  Id.  §  86.  3  Id.  §  91. 

4  See  Sprenger,  vol.  iii.  pp.  360-1. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF  MUHAMMAD        41 

sentiment  of  national  unity,  a  consciousness  of  rights  and 
duties  towards  one  another  such  as  the  Arabs  had  not  felt 
before.1  In  this  way,  Islam  was  uniting  together  clans  that 
hitherto  had  been  continually  at  feud  with  one  another,  and 
as  this  great  confederacy  grew,  it  more  and  more  attracted 
to  itself  the  weaker  among  the  tribes  of  Arabia.  In  the 
accounts  of  the  conversion  of  the  Arab  tribes,  there  is 
continual  mention  of  the  promise  of  security  against  their 
enemies,  made  to  them  by  the  Prophet  on  the  occasion 
of  their  submission.  "  Woe  is  me  for  Muhammad  !  "  was 
the  cry  of  one  of  the  Arab  tribes  on  the  news  of  the  death 
of  the  Prophet.  "  So  long  as  he  was  alive,  I  lived  in  peace 
and  in  safety  from  my  enemies;  "  and  the  cry  must  have 
found  an  echo  far  and  wide  throughout  Arabia. 

How  superficial  was  the  adherence  of  numbers  of  the 
Arab  tribes  to  the  faith  of  Islam  may  be  judged  from 
the  widespread  apostasy  that  followed  immediately  on  the 
death  of  the  Prophet.  Their  acceptance  of  Islam  would 
seem  to  have  been  often  dictated  more  by  considerations 
of  political  expediency,  and  was  more  frequently  a  bargain 
struck  under  pressure  of  violence  than  the  outcome  of  any 
enthusiasm  or  spiritual  awakening.  They  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  swept  into  the  stream  of  what  had  now  become 
a  great  national  movement,  and  we  miss  the  fervent  zeal 
of  the  early  converts  in  the  cool,  calculating  attitude  of 
those  who  came  in  after  the  fall  of  Mecca.  But  even  from 
among  these  must  have  come  many  to  swell  the  ranks  of 
the  true  believers  animated  with  a  genuine  zeal  for  the 
faith,  and  ready,  as  we  have  seen,  to  give  their  lives  in  the 
effort  to  preach  it  to  their  brethren. 

"  These  men  were  the  true  moral  heirs  of  the  Prophet, 
the  future  apostles  of  Islam,  the  faithful  trustees  of  all  that 
Muhammad  had  revealed  unto  the  men  of  God.  Into  these 
men,  through  their  constant  contact  with  the  Prophet  and 
their  devotion  to  him,  there  had  really  entered  a  new  mode 
of  thought  and  feeling,  loftier  and  more  civilised  than  any 
i  they  had  known  before;  they  had  really  changed  for  the 
better  from  every  point  of  view,  and  later  on  as  statesmen 
and  generals,  in  the  most  difficult  moments  of  the  war  of 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  433. 


42  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

conquest  they  gave  magnificent  and  undeniable  proof  that 
the  ideas  and  the  doctrines  of  Muhammad  had  been  seed 
cast  on  fruitful  soil,  and  had  produced  a  body  of  men  of 
the  very  highest  worth.  They  were  the  depositaries  of  the 
sacred  text  of  the  Qur'an,  which  they  alone  knew  by  heart ; 
they  were  the  jealous  guardians  of  the  memory  of  every 
word  and  bidding  of  the  Prophet,  the  trustees  of  the  moral 
heritage  of  Muhammad.  These  men  formed  the  venerable 
stock  of  Islam  from  whom  one  day  was  to  spring  the  noble 
band  of  the  first  jurists,  theologians  and  traditionists  of 
Muslim  society."  * 

But  for  such  men  as  these,  so  vast  a  movement  could  not 
have  held  together,  much  less  have  recovered  the  shock 
given  it  by  the  death  of  the  founder.  For  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  how  distinctly  Islam  was  a  new  movement  in 
heathen  Arabia,  and  how  diametrically  opposed  were  the 
ideals  of  the  two  societies.2  For  the  introduction  of  Islam 
into  Arab  society  did  not  imply  merely  the  sweeping  away 
of  a  few  barbarous  and  inhuman  practices,  but  a  complete 
reversal  of  the  pre-existing  ideals  of  life. 

Herein  we  have  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  the  essentially 
missionary  character  of  the  teaching  of  Muhammad,  who 
thus  comes  forward  as  the  exponent  of  a  new  scheme  of  faith 
and  practice.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  conditions 
favourable  to  the  formation  of  a  new  political  organisation, 
Muhammad  certainly  did  not  find  the  society  of  his  day 
prepared  to  receive  his  religious  teaching  and  waiting  only 
for  the  voice  that  would  express  in  speech  the  inarticulate 
yearnings  of  their  hearts.  But  it  is  just  this  spirit  of 
expectancy  that  is  wanting  among  the  Arabs — those  at 
least  of  the  Central  Arabia  towards  whom  Muhammad's 
efforts  were  at  first  directed.  They  were  by  no  means 
ready  to  receive  the  preaching  of  a  new  teacher,  least  of  all 
one  who  came  with  the  (to  them  unintelligible)  title  of 
apostle  of  God. 

Again,  the  equality  in  Islam  of  all  believers  and  the 
common   brotherhood   of   all   Muslims,   which   suffered   no 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  429. 

2  This  has  been  nowhere  more  fully  and  excellently  brought  out  than  in 
the  scholarly  work  of  Prof.  Ignaz  Goldziher  (Muhammedanische  Studien, 
vol.  i.),  from  which  I  have  derived  the  following  considerations. 


STUDY   OF  THE   LIFE   OF   MUHAMMAD       43 

distinctions  between  Arab  and  non-Arab,  between  free  and 
slave,  to  exist  among  the  faithful,  was  an  idea  that  ran 
directly  counter  to  the  proud  clan-feeling  of  the  Arab,  who 
grounded  his  claims  to  personal  consideration  on  the  fame 
of  his  ancestors,  and  in  the  strength  of  the  same  carried 
on  the  endless  blood-feuds  in  which  his  soul  delighted. 
Indeed,  the  fundamental  principles  in  the  teaching  of 
Muhammad  were  a  protest  against  much  that  the  Arabs 
had  hitherto  most  highly  valued,  and  the  newly-converted 
Muslim  was  taught  to  consider  as  virtues,  qualities  which 
hitherto  he  had  looked  down  upon  with  contempt. 

To  the  heathen  Arab,  friendship  and  hostility  were  as  a 
loan  which  he  sought  to  repay  with  interest,  and  he  prided 
himself  on  returning  evil  for  evil,  and  looked  down  on  any 
who  acted  otherwise  as  a  weak  nidering. 

He  is  the  perfect  man  who  late  and  early  plotteth  still 
To  do  a  kindness  to  his  friends  and  work  his  foes  some  ill. 

To  such  men  the  Prophet  said,  "  Recompense  evil  with 
that  which  is  better  "  (xxiii.  98) ;  as  they  desired  the  forgive- 
ness of  God,  they  were  to  pass  over  and  pardon  offences 
(xxiv.  22),  and  a  Paradise,  vast  as  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  was  prepared  for  those  who  mastered  their  anger 
and  forgave  others,     (hi.  128.) 

The  very  institution  of  prayer  was  jeered  at  by  the  Arabs 
to  whom  Muhammad  first  delivered  his  message,  and  one 
of  the  hardest  parts  of  his  task  was  to  induce  in  them  that 
pious  attitude  of  mind  towards  the  Creator,  which  Islam 
inculcates  equally  with  Judaism  and  Christianity,  but  which 
was  practically  unknown  to  the  heathen  Arabs.  This 
self-sufficiency  and  this  lack  of  the  religious  spirit,  joined 
with  their  intense  pride  of  race,  little  fitted  them  to  receive 
the  teachings  of  one  who  maintained  that  "  The  most 
worthy  of  honour  in  the  sight  of  God  is  he  that  feareth 
Him  most  "  (xlix.  13).  No  more  could  they  brook  the 
restrictions  that  Islam  sought  to  lay  upon  the  licence  of 
their  lives ;  wine,  women,  and  song,  were  among  the  things 
most  dear  to  the  Arab's  heart  in  the  days  of  the  ignorance, 
and  the  Prophet  was  stern  and  severe  in  his  injunctions 
respecting  each  of  them. 


V 


44  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Thus,  from  the  very  beginning,  Islam  bears  the  stamp  of 
a  missionary  religion  that  seeks  to  win  the  hearts  of  men, 
to  convert  them  and  persuade  them  to  enter  the  brotherhood 
of  the  faithful;  and  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  so  has  it 
continued  to  be  up  to  the  present  day,  as  will  be  the  object 
of  the  following  pages  to  show. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG   THE   CHRISTIAN 
NATIONS   OF   WESTERN   ASIA. 

After  the  death  of  Muhammad,  the  army  he  had  intended 
for  Syria  was  despatched  thither  by  Abu  Bakr,  in  spite  of 
the  protestations  made  by  certain  Muslims  in  view  of  the 
then  disturbed  state  of  Arabia.  He  silenced  their  expostu- 
lations with  the  words  :  "I  will  not  revoke  any  order  given 
by  the  Prophet.  Medina  may  become  the  prey  of  wild 
beasts,  but  the  army  must  carry  out  the  wishes  of  Muham- 
mad." This  was  the  first  of  that  wonderful  series  of 
campaigns  in  which  the  Arabs  overran  Syria,  Persia  and 
Northern  Africa — overturning  the  ancient  kingdom  of 
Persia  and  despoiling  the  Roman  Empire  of  some  of  its 
fairest  provinces.  It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this 
work  to  follow  the  history  of  these  different  campaigns, 
but,  in  view  of  the  expansion  of  the  Muslim  faith  that 
followed  the  Arab  conquests,  it  is  of  importance  to  discover 
what  were  the  circumstances  that  made  such  an  expansion 
possible. 

A  great  historian  *  has  well  put  the  problem  that  meets 
us  here,  in  the  following  words  :  "  Was  it  genuine  religious 
enthusiasm,  the  new  strength  of  a  faith  now  for  the  first 
time  blossoming  forth  in  all  its  purity,  that  gave  the  victory 
in  every  battle  to  the  arms  of  the  Arabs  and  in  so  incredibly 
short  a  time  founded  the  greatest  empire  the  world  had 
ever  seen  ?  But  evidence  is  wanting  to  prove  that  this 
was  the  case.  The  number  was  far  too  small  of  those  who 
had  given  their  allegiance  to  the  Prophet  and  his  teaching 
with  a  free  and  heartfelt  conviction,  while  on  the  other 
hand  all  the  greater  was  the  number  of  those  who  had  been 

1  Ddllinger,  pp.  5-6. 
45 


46  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM  1 

brought  into  the  ranks  of  the  Muhammadans  only  through 
pressure  from  without   or  by  the  hope   of  worldly  gain. 
Khalid,  '  that  sword  of  the  swords  of   God,'  exhibited  in  a 
very  striking  manner  that  mixture  of  force  and  persuasion 
whereby  he  and  many  of  the  Quraysh  had  been  converted, 
when  he  said  that  God  had  seized  them  by  the  hearts  and 
by  the  hair  and  compelled  them  to  follow  the  Prophet. 
The  proud  feeling  too  of  a  common  nationality  had  much 
influence — a  feeling  which  was  more  alive  among  the  Arabs 
of  that  time  than  (perhaps)  among  any  other  people,  and 
which  alone  determined  many  thousands  to  give  the  prefer- 
ence to  their  countryman  and  his  religion  before  foreign 
teachers.     Still  more  powerful  was  the  attraction  offered  by 
the  sure  prospect  of  gaining  booty  in  abundance,  in  fighting 
for  the  new  religion  and  of  exchanging  their  bare,  stony 
deserts,  which  offered  them  only  a  miserable  subsistence, 
for  the  fruitful  and  luxuriant  countries  of  Persia,  Syria  and 
Egypt." 

These  stupendous  conquests  which  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  Arab  empire,  were  certainly  not  the  outcome  of  a 
holy  war,  waged  for  the  propagation  of  Islam,  but  they 
were  followed  by  such  a  vast  defection  from  the  Christian 
faith  that  this  result  has  often  been  supposed  to  have  been 
their  aim.  Thus  the  sword  came  to  be  looked  upon  by 
Christian  historians  as  the  instrument  of  Muslim  propa- 
ganda, and  in  the  light  of  the  success  attributed  to  it  the 
evidences  of  the  genuine  missionary  activity  of  Islam  were 
obscured.  But  the  spirit  which  animated  the  invading  hosts 
of  Arabs  who  poured  over  the  confines  of  the  Byzantine  and 
Persian  empires,  was  no  proselytising  zeal  for  the  conversion 
of  souls.  On  the  contrary,  religious  interests  appear  to 
have  entered  but  little  into  the  consciousness  of  the  pro- 
tagonists of  the  Arab  armies.1  This  expansion  of  the  Arab 
race  is  more  rightly  envisaged  as  the  migration  of  a  vigorous 
and  energetic  people  driven  by  hunger  and  want,  to  leave 
their  inhospitable  deserts  and  overrun  the  richer  lands 
of   their  more   fortunate    neighbours.2     Still    the  unifying 

1  Caetani,  Studi  di  Storia  Orientale,  I,  p.  365  sqq.      (Milano,  191 1.) 

3  This  interpretation  of  the  Arab  conquests  as  the  last  of  the  great  Semitic 

migrations  has  been  worked  out  in  a  masterly  manner  by  Caetani,  vol.  ii. 

pp.  831-61. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       47 

principle  of  the  movement  was  the  theocracy  established  in 
Medina,  and  the  organisation  of  the  new  state  proceeded 
from  the  devoted  companions  of  Muhammad,  the  faithful 
depositaries  of  his  teaching,  whose  moral  weight  and  en- 
thusiasm kept  Islam  alive  as  the  official  religion,  despite  the 
indifference  of  those  Arabs  who  gave  to  it  a  mere  nominal 
adherence.1  It  is  not,  therefore,  in  the  annals  of  the  conquer- 
ing armies  that  we  must  look  for  the  reasons  which  lead  to 
the  so  rapid  spread  of  the  Muslim  faith,  but  rather  in  the 
1  conditions  prevailing  among  the  conquered  peoples. 

The  national  character  of  this  ethnic  movement  of  migra- 
tion naturally  attracted  to  the  invading  Arab  hosts  the 
outlying  representatives  of  the  Arab  race  through  whom 
the  path  of  the  conquering  armies  lay.  Accordingly  it 
is  not  surprising  to  find  that  many  of  the  Christian  : 
;  Bedouins  were  swept  into  the  rushing  tide  of  this  great 
movement  and  that  Arab  tribes,  who  for  centuries  had 
professed  the  Christian  religion,  now  abandoned  it  to  em- 
:  brace  the  Muslim  faith.  Among  these  was  the  tribe  of 
the  Banu  Ghassan,  who  held  sway  over  the  desert  east  of 
Palestine  and  southern  Syria,  of  whom  it  was  said  that  they 
were  "  Lords  in  the  days  of  the  ignorance  and  stars  in 
Islam."  2  After  the  battle  of  Qadisiyyah  (a.h.  14)  in  which 
the  Persian  army  under  Rustam  had  been  utterly  discomfited, 
many  Christians  belonging  to  the  Bedouin  tribes  on  both 
sides  of  the  Euphrates  came  to  the  Muslim  general  and 
said  :  "  The  tribes  that  at  the  first  embraced  Islam  were 
wiser  than  we.  Now  that  Rustam  hath  been  slain,  we  will 
accept  the  new  belief."  3  Similarly,  after  the  conquest  of 
northern  Syria,  most  of  the  Bedouin  tribes,  after  hesitating 
:a  little,  joined  themselves  to  the  followers  of  the  Prophet.4 

That  force  was  not  the  determining  factor  in  these 
conversions  may  be  judged  from  the  amicable  relations 
that  existed  between  the  Christian  and  the  Muslim  Arabs. 
Muhammad  himself  had  entered  into  treaty  with  several 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  455;  vol.  v.  p.  521.  ("  In  Maclinah  si  formo  un 
considerevole  nucleo  religioso,  composto  d'elementi  eterogenei,  ma  forse 
in  maggioranza  madinesi,  i  quali  presero  l'lslam  molto  sul  serio  e  cercarono 
sinceramente  di  osservare  la  nuova  dottrina,  per  la  convinzione  che,  cosl 
iagendo  facevan  bene,  ed  in  devoto  omaggio  alia  volonta  del  Profeta.") 

2  Mas'iidl,  tome  iv.  p.  238.  3  Muir's  Caliphate,  pp.  121-2. 
4  Caetani,  vol.  iii.  p.  814  (§  323). 


y 


48  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

Christian  tribes,  promising  them  his  protection  and  guaran- 
teeing them  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  and  to  their 
clergy  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  their  old  rights  and  author- 
ity.1 A  similar  bond  of  friendship  united  his  followers  with 
their  fellow-countrymen  of  the  older  faith,  many  of  whom 
voluntarily  came  forward  to  assist  the  Muslims  in  their 
military  expeditions  in  the  same  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  new 
government  as  had  caused  them  to  hold  aloof  from  the  great 
apostasy  that  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  throughout 
Arabia  immediately  after  the  death  of  the  Prophet.2  It 
has  been  suggested  that  the  Christian  Arabs  who  guarded 
the  frontier  of  the  Byzantine  empire  bordering  on  the 
desert  threw  in  their  lot  with  the  invading  Muslim  army, 
when  Heraclius  refused  any  longer  to  pay  them  their  accus- 
tomed subsidy  for  military  service  as  wardens  of  the 
marches.3 

In  the  battle  of  the  Bridge  (a.h.  13)  when  a  disastrous 
defeat  was  imminent  and  the  panic-stricken  Arabs  were 
hemmed  in  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Persian  host, 
a  Christian  chief  of  the  Banu  Tayy  sprang  forward  like 
another  Spurius  Lartius  to  the  side  of  an  Arab  Horatius,  to 
assist  Muthannah  the  Muslim  general  in  defending  the  bridge 
of  boats  which  could  alone  afford  the  means  of  an  orderly 
retreat.  When  fresh  levies  were  raised  to  retrieve  this 
disgrace,  among  the  reinforcements  that  came  pouring  in 
from  every  direction  was  a  Christian  tribe  of  the  Banu 
Namir,  who  dwelt  within  the  limits  of  the  Byzantine  empire, 
and  in  the  ensuing  battle  of  Buwayb  (a.h.  13),  just  before 
the  final  charge  of  the  Arabs  that  turned  the  fortune  of 
battle  in  their  favour,  Muthannah  rode  up  to  the  Christian 
chief  and  said  :  "  Ye  are  of  one  blood  with  us;  come  now, 
and  as  I  charge,  charge  ye  with  me."  The  Persians  fell 
back  before  their  furious  onslaught,  and  another  great, 
victory  was  added  to  the  glorious  roll  of  Muslim  triumphs. 
One  of  the  most  gallant  exploits  of  the  day  was  performed 
by  a  youth  belonging  to  another  Christian  tribe  of  the 
desert,  who  with  his  companions,  a  company  of  Bedouin 
horse-dealers,  had  come  up  just  as  the  Arab  army  was  being 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  pp.  260,  299,  351. 

2  Id.  pp.  792-3;  vol.  iii.  p.  253  (§  8).  3  Id.  pp.  11 12-15. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       49 

drawn  up  in  battle  array.  They  threw  themselves  into  the 
right  on  the  side  of  their  compatriots ;  and  while  the  conflict 
was  raging  most  fiercely,  this  youth,  rushing  into  the  centre 
of  the  Persians,  slew  their  leader,  and  leaping  on  his  richly- 
caparisoned  horse,  galloped  back  amidst  the  plaudits  of  the 
Muslim  line,  crying  as  he  passed  in  triumph  :  "  I  am  of  the 
Banu  Taghlib.     I  am  he  that  hath  slain  the  chief."  1 

The  tribe  to  which  this  young  man  boasted  that  he  be- 
longed was  one  of  those  that  elected  to  remain  Christian, 
while  other  tribes  of  Mesopotamia,  such  as  the  Banu 
Namir  and  the  Banu  Quda'ah,  became  Muslim.  The 
Banu  Taghlib  had  sent  an  embassy  to  the  Prophet  as 
early  as  the  year  a.h.  9.  The  heathen  members  of  the 
deputation  embraced  Islam  and  he  made  a  treaty  with  the 
Christians  according  to  which  they  were  to  retain  their  old 
faith  but  were  not  to  baptise  their  children.  A  condition 
so  entirely  at  variance  with  the  usual  tolerant  attitude  of 
Muhammad  towards  the  Christian  Arabs,  who  were  allowed 
to  choose  between  conversion  to  Islam  and  the  payment 
of  jizyah  and  never  compelled  to  abandon  their  faith,  has 
given  rise  to  the  conjecture  that  this  condition  was  sug- 
gested by  the  Christian  families  of  the  Banu  Taghlib  them- 
selves, out  of  motives  of  economy.2  The  long  survival  of 
Christianity  in  this  tribe  shows  that  this  condition  was 
certainly  not  observed.  The  caliph  'Umar  forbade  any 
pressure  to  be  put  upon  them,  when  they  showed  them- 
selves unwilling  to  abandon  their  old  faith  and  ordered 
that  they  should  be  left  undisturbed  in  the  practice  of 
it,  but  that  they  were  not  to  oppose  the  conversion  of 
any  member  of  their  tribe  to  Islam  nor  baptise  the 
children  of  such  as  became  Muslims.3  They  were  called 
upon  to  pay  the  jizyah4  or  tax  imposed  on  the  non- 
Muslim  subjects,  but  they  felt  it  to  be  humiliating  to 
their  pride  to  pay  a  tax  that  was  levied  in  return  for 

1  Muir  :    Caliphate,  pp.  90-4. 

2  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  299.     Wellhausen,  iv.  p.  156  {n.  5). 

3  Tabari,  Prima  Series,  p.  2482. 

*  For  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  jizyah,  with  a  masterly  array  and 

:  critical  examination  of  all  the  available  historical  materials,  see  Caetani, 

vol.  v.  p.  319  sqq. ;    for  Egypt  during  the  first  century  of  Muslim  rule,  see 

Bell,  p.  107  sqq.,  and  Becker,  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  Aegyptens  unter 

dem  Islam,  p.  Hi  sqq. 

E 


50  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

protection  of  life  and  property,  and  petitioned  the  caliph 
to  be  allowed  to  make  the  same  kind  of  contribution  as  the 
Muslims  did.  So  in  lieu  of  the  jizyah  they  paid  a  double 
Sadaqah  or  alms,1 — which  was  a  poor  tax  levied  on  the 
fields  and  cattle,  etc.,  of  the  Muslims.2  It  especially  irked 
the  Muslims  that  any  of  the  Arabs  should  remain  true  to  the 
Christian  faith.  The  majority  of  the  Banii  Taniikh  had 
become  Muslim  in  the  year  a.h.  12,  when  with  other  Christian 
Arab  tribes  they  submitted  to  Khalid  b.  al-Walid,3  but  some 
of  them  appear  to  have  remained  true  to  their  old  faith  for 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  since  the  caliph  al-Mahdi  (a.h. 
158-169)  is  said  to  have  seen  a  number  of  them  who  dwelt 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Aleppo,  and  learning  that  they 
were  Christians,  in  anger  ordered  them  to  accept  Islam — 
which  they  did  to  the  number  of  5000,  and  one  of  them 
suffered  martyrdom  rather  than  apostatise.4  But  for  the 
most  part,  details  are  lacking  for  any  history  of  the  dis- 
appearance of  Christianity  from  among  the  Christian  Arab 
tribes  of  Northern  Arabia;  they  seem  to  have  become 
absorbed  in  the  surrounding  Muslim  community  by  an 
almost  insensible  process  of  "  peaceful  penetration  " ;  had 
attempts  been  made  to  convert  them  by  force  when  they 
first  came  under  Muhammadan  rule,  it  would  not  have  been 
possible  for  Christians  to  have  survived  among  them  up  to 
the  times  of  the  'Abbasid  caliphs.5 

The  people  of  Hirah  had  likewise  resisted  all  the  efforts 
made  by  Khalid  to  induce  them  to  accept  the  Muslim  faith. 
This  city  was  one  of  the  most  illustrious  in  the  annals  of 
Arabia,  and  to  the  mind  of  the  impetuous  hero  of  Islam  it 
seemed  that  an  appeal  to  their  Arab  blood  would  be  enough 
to  induce  them  to  enrol  themselves  with  the  followers  of 
the  Prophet  of  Arabia.  When  the  besieged  citizens  sent  an 
embassy  to  the  Muslim  general  to  arrange  the  terms  of  the 
capitulation  of  their  city,  Khalid  asked  them,    "  Who    are 

1  Caetani  (vol.  iv.  p.  227)  believes  that  this  story  is  the  invention  of  a 
later  epoch,  to  explain  the  fiscal  anomaly  of  a  Christian  tribe  being  treated 
as  if  it  were  Muslim. 

2  The  few  meagre  notices  of  this  tribe  in  the  works  of  Arabic  historians 
have  been  admirably  summarised  by  Lammens  :  Le  Chantre  des  Omiades. 
(J.  A.,  ix.  ser.,  tome  iv.  pp.  97-9,  438-59.)  See  also  Caetani,  vol.  iv. 
p.  227  sqq.  ,  3  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  n 80. 

4  Barhebrseus  (3),  pp.  134-5.  5  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  828. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN  WESTERN   ASIA       51 

you  ?  are  you  Arabs  or  Persians  ?  '  Then  'Adi,  the  spokes- 
man of  the  deputation,  replied,  "  Nay,  we  are  pure-blooded 
Arabs,  while  others  among  us  are  naturalised  Arabs.' 
Kh.  "  Had  you  been  what  you  say  you  are,  you  would 
not  have  opposed  us  or  hated  our  cause."  'A.  "  Our  pure 
Arab  speech  is  the  proof  of  what  I  say."  Kh.  "  You  speak 
truly.  Now  choose  you  one  of  these  three  things  :  either 
(1)  accept  our  faith,  then  your  rights  and  obligations  will 
be  the  same  as  ours,  whether  you  choose  to  go  into  another 
country  or  stay  in  your  own  land;  or  (2)  pay  jizyah;  or 
(3)  war  and  battle.  Verily,  by  God  !  I  have  come  to  you 
with  a  people  who  are  more  desirous  of  death  than  you  are 
of  life."  'A.  "  Nay,  we  will  pay  you  jizyah."  Kh.  "  Ill- 
luck  to  you  !  Unbelief  is  a  pathless  desert  and  foolish  is 
the  Arab  who,  when  two  guides  meet  him  wandering  therein 
— the  one  an  Arab  and  the  other  not — leaves  the  first  and 
accepts  the  guidance  of  the  foreigner."  * 

Due  provision  was  made  for  the  instruction  of  the  new 
converts,  for  while  whole  tribes  were  being  converted  to  the 
faith  with  such  rapidity,  it  was  necessary  to  take  pre- 
cautions against  errors,  both  in  respect  of  creed  and  ritual, 
such  as  might  naturally  be  feared  in  the  case  of  ill-instructed 
converts.  Accordingly  we  find  that  the  caliph  'Umar 
appointed  teachers  in  every  country,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
instruct  the  people  in  the  teachings  of  the  Qur'an  and  the 
observances  of  their  new  faith.  The  magistrates  were  also 
ordered  to  see  that  all,  whether  old  or  young,  were  regular 
in  their  attendance  at  public  prayer,  especially  on  Fridays 
and  in  the  month  of  Ramadan.  The  importance  attached 
to  this  work  of  instructing  the  new  converts  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  in  the  city  of  Kufah  it  was  no  less  a 
personage  than  the  state  treasurer  who  was  entrusted  with 
this  task.2 

From  the  examples  given  above  of  the  toleration  extended 
towards  the  Christian  Arabs  by  the  victorious  Muslims  of 
the  first  century  of  the  Hijrah  and  continued  by  succeeding 
generations,  we  may  surely  infer  that  those  Christian  tribes 
that  did  embrace  Islam,  did  so  of  their  own  choice  and  free 

1  Tabari,  i.  p.  2041. 

2  Mas'udi,  tome  iv.  p.  256. 


v- 


52  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

will.1  The  Christian  Arabs  of  the  present  day,  dwelling  in 
the  midst  of  a  Muhammadan  population,  are  a  living  testi- 
mony of  this  toleration;  Layard  speaks  of  having  come 
across  an  encampment  of  Christian  Arabs  at  al-Karak,  to 
the  east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  who  differed  in  no  way,  either  in 
dress  or  in  manners,  from  the  Muslim  Arabs.2  Burckhardt 
was  told  by  the  monks  of  Mount  Sinai  that  in  the  last 
century  there  still  remained  several  families  of  Christian 
Bedouins  who  had  not  embraced  Islam,  and  that  the  last 
of  them,  an  old  woman,  died  in  1750,  and  was  buried  in  the 
garden  of  the  convent.3 

Many  of  the  Arabs  of  the  renowned  tribe  of  the  Banu 
Ghassan,  Arabs  of  the  purest  blood,  who  embraced  Christi- 
anity towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  still  retain  the 
Christian  faith,  and  since  their  submission  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  about  two  centuries  ago,  employ  the  Arabic  language 
in  their  religious  services.4 

If  we  turn  from  the  Bedouins  to  consider  the  attitude  of 
the  settled  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and  the  non-Arab 
population  towards  the  new  religion,  we  do  not  find  that 
the  Arab  conquest  was  so  rapidly  followed  by  conversions 
to  Islam.  The  Christians  of  the  great  cities  of  the  eastern 
provinces  of  the  Byzantine  empire  seem  for  the  most  part 
to  have  remained  faithful  to  their  ancestral  creed,  to  which 
indeed  they  still  in  large  numbers  cling. 

In  order  that  we  may  fully  appreciate  their  condition 
under  the  Muslim  rule,  and  estimate  the  influences  that  led 
to  occasional  conversions,  it  will  be  well  briefly  to  sketch 
their  situation  under  the  Christian  rule  of  the  Byzantine 
empire  which  fell  back  before  the  Arab  arms. 

A  hundred  years  before,  Justinian  had  succeeded  in 
giving  some  show  of  unity  to  the  Roman  Empire,  but  after 

1  "  Gli  Arabi  nei  primi  anni  non  perseguitarono  invece  alcuno  per  ragioni 
di  fede,  non  si  diedero  pena  alcuna  per  convertire  chicchessia,  sicche  sotto 
V Islam,  dopo  le  prime  conquiste,  i  cristiani  Semiti  goderno  d'una  tolleranza 
religiosa  quale  non  si  era  mai  vista  da  varie  generazioni."  (Caetani, 
vol.  v.  p.  4.) 

*  Sir  Henry  Layard  :  Early  Adventures  in  Persia,  Susiana  and  Baby- 
lonia, vol.  i.  p.  100.  (London,  1887);  R.  Hartmann  :  Die  Herrschaft  von 
al-Karak.     (Der  Islam,  vol.  ii.  p.  137.) 

3  Burckhardt  (2),  p.  564. 

*  W.  G.  Palgrave :  Essays  on  Eastern  Questions,  pp.  206-8.  (London,  1872.) 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       53 

his  death  it  rapidly  fell  asunder,  and  at  this  time  there  was 
an  entire  want  of  common  national  feeling  between  the 
provinces  and  the  seat  of  government.  Heraclius  had  made 
some  partially  successful  efforts  to  attach  Syria  again  to  the 
central  government,  but  unfortunately  the  general  methods 
of  reconciliation  which  he  adopted  had  served  only  to  in- 
crease dissension  instead  of  allaying  it.  Religious  passions 
were  the  only  existing  substitute  for  national  feeling,  and  he 
tried,  by  propounding  an  exposition  of  faith,  that  was 
intended  to  serve  as  an  eirenicon,  to  stop  all  further  disputes 
between  the  contending  factions  and  unite  the  heretics  to 
the  Orthodox  Church  and  to  the  central  government.  The 
Council  of  Chalcedon  (451)  had  maintained  that  Christ  was 
"to  be  acknowledged  in  two  natures,  without  confusion, 
change,  division,  or  separation ;  the  difference  of  the  natures 
being  in  nowise  taken  away  by  reason  of  their  union,  but 
rather  the  properties  of  each  nature  being  preserved,  and 
concurring  into  one  person  and  one  substance,  not  as  it  were 
divided  or  separated  into  two  persons,  but  one  and  the  same 
Son  and  only  begotten,  God  the  Word."  This  council  was 
rejected  by  the  Monophysites,  who  only  allowed  one  nature 
in  the  person  of  Christ,  who  was  said  to  be  a  composite 
person,  having  all  attributes  divine  and  human,  but  the 
substance  bearing  these  attributes  was  no  longer  a  duality, 
but  a  composite  unity.  The  controversy  between  the 
orthodox  party  and  the  Monophysites,  who  flourished 
particularly  in  Egypt  and  Syria  and  in  countries  outside 
the  Byzantine  empire,  had  been  hotly  contested  for  nearly 
two  centuries,  when  Heraclius  sought  to  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion by  means  of  the  doctrine  of  Monotheletism  :  while 
conceding  the  duality  of  the  natures,  it  secured  unity  of  the 
person  in  the  actual  life  of  Christ,  by  the  rejection  of  two 
1  series  of  activities  in  this  one  person;  the  one  Christ  and 
!  Son  of  God  effectuates  that  which  is  human  and  that  which 
'  is  divine  by  one  divine  human  agency,  i.  e.  there  is  only 
I  one  will  in  the  Incarnate  Word.1 

But    Heraclius  shared    the   fate  of    so  many  would-be 

1 1.   A.   Dorner  :   A  System  of  Christian  Doctrine,   vol.   iii.   pp.   215-16. 
^(London,  1885.)     J.  C.  Robertson:  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  vol.' 
ii.  p.   226.     (London,  1875.) 


54  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

peace-makers  :  for  not  only  did  the  controversy  blaze  up 
again  all  the  more  fiercely,  but  he  himself  was  stigmatised 
as  a  heretic  and  drew  upon  himself  the  wrath  of  both  parties. 

Indeed,  so  bitter  was  the  feeling  he  aroused  that  there  is 
strong  reason  to  believe  that  even  a  majority  of  the  orthodox 
subjects  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  provinces  that  were 
conquered  during  this  emperor's  reign,  were  the  well-wishers 
of  the  Arabs ;  they  regarded  the  emperor  with  aversion  as  a 
heretic,  and  were  afraid  that  he  might  commence  a  perse- 
cution in  order  to  force  upon  them  his  Monotheletic  opinions.1 
They  therefore  readily — and  even  eagerly — received  the  new 
masters  who  promised  them  religious  toleration,  and  were 
willing  to  compromise  their  religious  position  and  their 
national  independence  if  only  they  could  free  themselves 
from  the  immediately  impending  danger. 

Michael  the  Elder,  Jacobite  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  writing 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  could  approve  the 
decision  of  his  co-religionists  and  see  the  finger  of  God  in 
the  Arab  conquests  even  after  the  Eastern  churches  had 
had  experience  of  five  centuries  of  Muhammadan  rule. 
After  recounting  the  persecutions  of  Heraclius,  he  writes  : 
"  This  is  why  the  God  of  vengeance,  who  alone  is  all- 
powerful,  and  changes  the  empire  of  mortals  as  He  will, 
giving  it  to  whomsoever  He  will,  and  uplifting  the  humble 
— beholding  the  wickedness  of  the  Romans  who,  throughout 
their  dominions,  cruelly  plundered  our  churches  and  our 
monasteries  and  condemned  us  without  pity — brought  from 
the  region  of  the  south  the  sons  of  Ishmael,  to  deliver  us 
through  them  from  the  hands  of  the  Romans.  And,  if  in 
truth,  we  have  suffered  some  loss,  because  the  catholic 
churches,  that  had  been  taken  away  from  us  and  given 
to  the  Chalcedonians,  remained  in  their  possession;  for 
when  the  cities  submitted  to  the  Arabs,  they  assigned  to 
each  denomination  the  churches  which  they  found  it  to  be 
in  possession  of  (and  at  that  time  the  great  church  of  Emessa 

1  That  such  fears  were  not  wholly  groundless  may  be  judged  from  the 
emperor's  intolerant  behaviour  towards  many  of  the  Monophysite  party 
in  his  progress  through  Syria  after  the  defeat  of  the  Persians  in  627.  (See 
Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  p.  412,  and  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  1049.) 
For  the  outrages  committed  by  the  Byzantine  soldiers  on  their  co- 
religionists in  the  reign  of  Constans  II  (642-668),  see  Michael  the  Elder, 
vol.  ii.  p.  443. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   WESTERN  ASIA       55 

and  that  of  Harran  had  been  taken  away  from  us) ;  never- 
theless it  was  no  slight  advantage  for  us  to  be  delivered  from 
the  cruelty  of  the  Romans,  their  wickedness,  their  wrath 
and  cruel  zeal  against  us,  and  to  find  ourselves  at  peace."  * 

When  the  Muslim  army  reached  the  valley  of  the  Jordan 
and  Abu  'Ubaydah  pitched  his  camp  at  Fihl,  the  Christian 
inhabitants  of  the  country  wrote  to  the  Arabs,  saying  :  "  O 
Muslims,  we  prefer  you  to  the  Byzantines,  though  they  are 
of  our  own  faith,  because  you  keep  better  faith  with  us  and  are 
more  merciful  to  us  and  refrain  from  doing  us  injustice  and 
your  rule  over  us  is  better  than  theirs,  for  they  have  robbed 
us  of  our  goods  and  our  homes."  2  The  people  of  Emessa 
closed  the  gates  of  their  city  against  the  army  of  Heraclius 
and  told  the  Muslims  that  they  preferred  their  government 
and  justice  to  the  injustice  and  oppression  of  the  Greeks.3 

Such  was  the  state  of  feeling  in  Syria  during  the  campaign 
of  633-639  in  which  the  Arabs  gradually  drove  the  Roman 
army  out  of  the  province.  And  when  Damascus,  in  637, 
set  the  example  of  making  terms  with  the  Arabs,  and  thus 
secured  immunity  from  plunder  and  other  favourable  con- 
ditions, the  rest  of  the  cities  of  Syria  were  not  slow  to  follow. 
Emessa,  Arethusa,  Hieropolis  and  other  towns  entered  into 
treaties  whereby  they  became  tributary  to  the  Arabs.  Even 
the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem  surrendered  the  city  on  similar 
terms.  The  fear  of  religious  compulsion  on  the  part  of  the 
heretical  emperor  made  the  promise  of  Muslim  toleration 
appear  more  attractive  than  the  connection  with  the  Roman 
Empire  and  a  Christian  government,  and  after  the  first  terrors 
caused  by  the  passage  of  an  invading  army,  there  succeeded 
a  profound  revulsion  of  feeling  in  favour  of  the  Arab 
conquerors.4 

1  Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  pp.  412-13.  Barhebraeus,  about  a  century 
later,  wrote  in  a  similar  strain.  (Chronicon  Ecclesiasticum,  ed.  J.  B. 
Abbeloos  et  Lamy,  p.  474.) 

2  Azdl,  p.  97.  3  Baladhuri,  p.  137. 

*  Caetani,  vol.  iii.  p.  813;  vol.  v.  p.  394.  ("  Gli  abitanti  accettarono 
con  non  celato  favore  il  mutamento  di  governo,  appena  ebbero  compreso 
che  gli  Arabi  avrebbero  rispettato  i  loro  diritti  individuali,  ed  avrebbero 
iasciata  completa  liberta  di  coscienza  in  materia  religiosa.  In  Siria,  citta 
ed  interi  distretti  si  affrettarono  a  trattare  con  gli  Arabi  anche  prima  della 
rotta  finale  dei  Greci.  Nel  Sawad  si  lasciarono  passivamente  sopraffare 
accettando  il  nuovo  dominio  senza  pattuire  condizioni  di  sorta ;  e  probabile 
che  anche  in  Siria  questo  fosse  il  caso  per  molte  regioni  remote  dalle  grandi 
vie  di  comunicazioni.") 


56  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

For  the  provinces  of  the  Byzantine  empire  that  were 
rapidly  acquired  by  the  prowess  of  the  Muslims  found  them- 
selves in  the  enjoyment  of  a  toleration  such  as,  on  account 
of  their  Monophysite  and  Nestorian  opinions,  had  been 
unknown  to  them  for  many  centuries.  They  were  allowed 
the  free  and  undisturbed  exercise  of  their  religion  with  some 
few  restrictions  imposed  for  the  sake  of  preventing  any 
friction  between  the  adherents  of  the  rival  religions,  or 
arousing  any  fanaticism  by  the  ostentatious  exhibition  of 
religious  symbols  that  were  so  offensive  to  Muslim  feeling.1 
The  extent  of  this  toleration — so  striking  in  the  history  of 
the  seventh  century — may  be  judged  from  the  terms  granted 
to  the  conquered  cities,  in  which  protection  of  life  and 
property  and  toleration  of  religious  belief  were  given  in 
return  for  submission  and  the  payment  of  jizyah.2 

The  exact  details  of  these  agreements  cannot  easily  be 
disentangled  from  the  accretions  with  which  they  have 
become  overlaid,  but  whether  verbally  authentic  or  not, 
they  are  significant  as  representing  the  historic  tradition 
accepted  by  the  Muslim  historians  of  the  second  century  of 
the  Hijrah — a  tradition  that  could  hardly  have  become 
established  had  there  been  extant  evidence  to  the  contrary. 
As  an  example  of  such  an  agreement,  the  conditions  3  may 
be  quoted  that  are  stated  to  have  been  drawn  up  when 
Jerusalem  submitted  to  the  caliph  'Umar  b.  al-Khattab  : 
"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate  ! 
This  is  the  security  which  'Umar,  the  servant  of  God,  the 
commander  of  the  faithful,  grants  to  the  people  of  ^Elia. 
He  grants  to  all,  whether  sick  or  sound,  security  for  their 
lives,  their  possessions,  their  churches  and  their  crosses,  and 
for  all  that  concerns  their  religion.  Their  churches  shall  not 
be  changed  into  dwelling  places,  nor  destroyed,  neither  shall 
they  nor  their  appurtenances  be  in  any  way  diminished,  nor 
the  crosses  of  the  inhabitants  nor  aught  of  their  possessions, 
nor  shall  any  constraint  be  put  upon  them  in  the  matter  of 
their  faith,  nor  shall  any  one  of  them  be  harmed."  4 

1  Gottheil  has  brought  together  a  valuable  collection  of  documentary 
evidence  as  to  the  condition  of  the  protected  peoples  under  Muslim  rule 
in  his  "  Dhimmis  and  Moslems  in  Egypt." 

2  Baladhuri,  pp.  74  (ad  fin.),  116,  121  (med.). 

3  For  a  discussion  of  this  document,  see  Caetani,  vol.  hi.  p.  952  sqq. 

4  Tabari,  i.  p.  2405. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       57 

Tribute  was  imposed  upon  them  of  five  dinars  for  the 
rich,  four  for  the  middle  class  and  three  for  the  poor.  In 
company  with  the  Patriarch,  'Umar  visited  the  holy  places, 
and  it  is  said  while  they  were  in  the  Church  of  the  Resur- 
rection, as  it  was  the  appointed  hour  of  prayer,  the  Patriarch 
bade  the  caliph  offer  his  prayers  there,  but  he  thoughtfully 
refused,  saying  that  if  he  were  to  do  so,  his  followers  might 
afterwards  claim  it  as  a  place  of  Muslim  worship. 

It  is  in  harmony  with  the  same  spirit  of  kindly  considera- 
tion for  his  subjects  of  another  faith,  that  'Umar  is  recorded 
to  have  ordered  an  allowance  of  money  and  food  to  be  made 
to  some  Christian  lepers,  apparently  out  of  the  public  funds.1 
Even  in  his  last  testament,  in  which  he  enjoins  on  his  suc- 
cessor the  duties  of  his  high  office,  he  remembers  the  dhimmis 
(or  protected  persons  of  other  faiths)  :  "  I  commend  to  his 
care  the  dhimmis,  who  enjoy  the  protection  of  God  and  of 
the  Prophet ;  let  him  see  to  it  that  the  covenant  with  them  is 
kept,  and  that  no  greater  burdens  than  they  can  bear  are 
laid  upon  them."  2 

A  later  generation  attributed  to  'Umar  a  number  of 
restrictive  regulations  which  hampered  the  Christians  in 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  but  De  Goeje  3  and  Caetani 4 
have  proved  without  doubt  that  they  are  the  invention  of 
a  later  age ;  as,  however,  Muslim  theologians  of  less  tolerant 
periods  accepted  these  ordinances  as  genuine,  they  are  ol 
importance  for  forming  a  judgment  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  Christian  Churches  under  Muslim  rule.  This  so-called 
[ordinance  of  'Umar  runs  as  follows  : — "  In,  the  name  of 
;  God,  the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate  !  This  is  a  writing 
to  'Umar  b.  al-Khattab  from  the  Christians  of  such 
and  such  a  city.  When  you  marched  against  us,  we 
1  asked  of  you  protection  for  ourselves,  our  posterity,  our 
; possessions  and  our  co-religionists;  and  we  made  this 
!  stipulation  with  you,  that  we  will  not  erect  in  our  city  or 
Ithe  suburbs  any  new  monastery,  church,  cell  or  hermitage ;  5 

1  Baladhurl,  p.  129.  2  Ibn  S'ad,  III,  i.  p.  246. 

3  Memoire  sur  la  conquSte  de  la  Syrie,  p.  143  sq. 

4  Annali  dell'  Islam,  vol.  iii.  p.  957. 

5  Some  authorities  on  Muhammadan  law  held  that  this  rule  did  not 
extend  to  villages  and  hamlets,  in  which  the  construction  of  churches  was 
not  to  be  prevented.     (Hidayah,  vol.  ii.  p.  219.) 


58  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

that  we  will  not  repair  any  of  such  buildings  that  may  fall 
into  ruins,  or  renew  those  that  may  be  situated  in  the  Muslim 
quarters  of  the  town;  that  we  will  not  refuse  the  Muslims 
entry  into  our  churches  either  by  night  or  by  day ;  that  we 
will  open  the  gates  wide  to  passengers  and  travellers ;  that 
we  will  receive  any  Muslim  traveller  into  our  houses  and  give 
him  food  and  lodging  for  three  nights;  that  we  will  not 
harbour  any  spy  in  our  churches  or  houses,  or  conceal  any 
enemy  of  the  Muslims ;  that  we  will  not  teach  our  children 
the  Qur'an ;  *  that  we  will  not  make  a  show  of  the  Christian 
religion  nor  invite  any  one  to  embrace  it ;  that  we  will  not 
prevent  any  of  our  kinsmen  from  embracing  Islam,  if  they 
so  desire.  That  we  will  honour  the  Muslims  and  rise  up 
in  our  assemblies  when  they  wish  to  take  their  seats ;  that 
we  will  not  imitate  them  in  our  dress,  either  in  the  cap, 
turban,  sandals,  or  parting  of  the  hair;  that  we  will  not 
make  use  of  their  expressions  of  speech,2  nor  adopt  their 
surnames ;  that  we  will  not  ride  on  saddles,  or  gird  on  swords, 
or  take  to  ourselves  arms  or  wear  them,  or  engrave  Arabic 
inscriptions  on  our  rings ;  that  we  will  not  sell  wine ;  that 
we  will  shave  the  front  of  our  heads ;  that  we  will  keep  to 
our  own  style  of  dress,  wherever  we  may  be;  that  we  will 
wear  girdles  round  our  waists ;  that  we  will  not  display  the 
cross  upon  our  churches  or  display  our  crosses  or  our  sacred 
books  in  the  streets  of  the  Muslims,  or  in  their  market- 
places ;  3  that  we  will  strike  the  bells  4  in  our  churches  lightly ; 
that  we  will  not  recite  our  services  in  a  loud  voice  when  a 
Muslim  is  present,  that  we  will  not  carry  palm-branches  or 
our  images  in  procession  in  the  streets,  that  at  the  burial 
of  our  dead  we  will  not  chant  loudly  or  carry  lighted  candles 

1  "  The  'Ulama'  are  divided  in  opinion  on  the  question  of  the  teaching 
of  the  Qur'an  :  the  sect  of  Malik  forbids  it  :  that  of  Abu  Hanifah  allows  it ; 
and  Shafi'i  has  two  opinions  on  the  subject  :  on  the  one  hand,  he  counten- 
ances the  study  of  it,  as  indicating  a  leaning  towards  Islam;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  he  forbids  it,  because  he  fears  that  the  unbeliever  who  studies 
the  Qur'an  being  still  impure  may  read  it  solely  with  the  object  of  turning 
it  to  ridicule,  since  he  is  the  enemy  of  God  and  the  Prophet  who  wrote  the 
book ;  now  as  these  two  statements  are  contradictory,  Shafi'i  has  no 
formally  stated  opinion  on  this  matter."      (Belin,  p.  50S.) 

2  Such  as  the  forms  of  greeting,  etc.,  that  are  only  to  be  used  by  Muslims 
to  one  another. 

3  Abu  Yusuf  (p.  82)  says  that  Christians  were  to  be  allowed  to  go  in 
procession  once  a  year  with  crosses,  but  not  with  banners;  outside  the 
city,  not  inside  where  the  mosques  were. 

*  The  naqus,  lit.  an  oblong  piece  of  wood,  struck  with  a  rod. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       59 

in  the  streets  of  the  Muslims  or  their  market-places;    that 

jwe  will  not  take  any  slaves  that  have  already  been  in  the 

1  possession  of  Muslims,  nor  spy  into  their  houses ;    and  that 

|we  will  not  strike  any  Muslim.     All  this  we  promise  to 

observe,  on  behalf  of  ourselves  and  our  co-religionists,  and 

receive  protection  from  you  in  exchange ;   and  if  we  violate 

any  of  the  conditions  of  this  agreement,  then  we  forfeit 

i  your  protection  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  treat  us  as  enemies 

and  rebels."  * 

The  earliest  mention  of  this  document  is  made  by  Ibn 

Hazm,  who  died  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  of  the 

Hijrah;  its  provisions  represent  the  more  intolerant  practice 

I  of  a  later  age,  and  indeed  were  regulations  that  were  put 

•into   force  with  no  sort   of  regularity,   some   outburst   of 

[fanaticism  being  generally  needed   for  any  appeal  to  be 

jmade  for  their  application.     There  is  abundant  evidence  to 

show  that  the  Christians  in  the  early  days  of  the  Muham- 

imadan  conquest  had  little  to  complain  of  in  the  way  of 

j religious   disabilities.     It   is   true  that   adherence  to  their 

ancient  faith  rendered  them  obnoxious  to  the  payment  of 

jizyah — a  word  which  originally  denoted  tribute  of    any 

kind  paid  by  the  non-Muslim  subjects  of  the  Arab  empire, 

but  came  later  on  to  be  used  for  the  capitation-tax  as  the 

fiscal  system  of  the  new  rulers  became  fixed ;  2    but  this 

jizyah  was  too  moderate  to  constitute  a  burden,  seeing  that 

it   released    them    from   the   compulsory   military   service 

that    was     incumbent    on    their    Muslim    fellow-subjects. 

Conversion  to  Islam  was  certainly  attended  by  a  certain 

pecuniary  advantage,  but  his  former  religion  could  have 

;had  but  little  hold  on  a  convert  who  abandoned  it  merely 

I  to  gain  exemption  from  the  jizyah;    and  now,  instead  of 

I  jizyah,  the  convert  had  to  pay  the  legal  alms,  zakat,  annual!} 

'levied  on  most  kinds  of  movable  and  immovable  propert} 


3 


1  Gottheil,  pp.  382-4,  where  references  are  given  to  the  various  versions 
of  this  document. 

2  There  is  evidence  to  show  that  the  Arab  conquerors  left  unchanged 
I the  fiscal  system  that  they  found  prevailing  in  the  lands  they  conquered 

from  the  Byzantines,  and  that  the  explanation  of  jizyah  as  a  capitation-tax 
;is  an  invention  of  later  jurists,  ignorant  of  the  true  condition  of  affairs  in 
'the  early  davs  of  Islam.  (Caetani,  vol.  iv.  p.  610  (§  231) ;  vol.  v.  p.  449.) 
(H.Lammens:  Ziad  ibn  Ablhi.    (Rivista  degli  Studi  Orientali,  vol.iv.p.  215.) 

3  Goldziher,  vol.  i.  pp.  50-7,  427-30.     Caetani,  vol.  v.  p.  311  sqq. 


60  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

The  pecuniary  temptation  to  escape  the  incidence  of  taxation 
by  means  of  conversion  was  considerably  lessened  when 
financial  considerations  compelled  the  Arab  government, 
towards  the  end  of  the  first  century,  to  insist  on  the  new 
converts  continuing  to  pay  jizyah  even  after  they  had  been 
received  into  the  community  of  the  faithful.1  On  the  other 
hand  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  non-Muslim  sections 
of  the  population  always  ran  the  risk  of  becoming  the  victims 
of  fiscal  oppression  when  the  state  was  in  need  of  revenue. 

The  rates  of  jizyah  levied  by  the  early  conquerors  were 
not  uniform,2  and  the  great  Muslim  doctors,  Abu  Hanifah 
and  Malik,  are  not  in  agreement  on  some  of  the  less  im- 
portant details ;  3  the  following  facts  taken  from  the  Kitab 
al-Kharaj,  drawn  up  by  Abu  Yusuf  at  the  request  of  Harun 
al-Rashid  (a.d.  786-809)  may  be  taken  as  generally  repre- 
sentative of  Muhammadan  procedure  under  the  'Abbasid 
Caliphate.  The  rich  were  to  pay  forty-eight  dirhams  4  a 
year,  the  middle  classes  twenty-four,  while  from  the  poor, 
i.  e.  the  field-labourers  and  artisans,  only  twelve  dirhams 
were  taken.  This  tax  could  be  paid  in  kind  if  desired; 
cattle,  merchandise,  household  effects,  even  needles  were 
to  be  accepted  in  lieu  of  specie,  but  not  pigs,  wine,  or  dead 
animals.  The  tax  was  to  be  levied  only  on  able-bodied 
males,  and  not  on  women  or  children.5  The  poor  who  were 
dependent  for  their  livelihood  on  alms  and  the  aged  poor 
who  were  incapable  of  work  were  also  specially  excepted, 
as  also  the  blind,  the  lame,  the  incurables  and  the  insane, 
unless  they  happened  to  be  men  of  wealth ;  this  same  con- 
dition applied  to  priests  and  monks,  who  were  exempt  if 
dependent  on  the  alms  of  the  rich,  but  had  to  pay  if  they 
were  well-to-do  and  lived  in  comfort.  The  collectors  of 
the  jizyah  were  particularly  instructed  to  show  leniency, 
and  refrain  from  all  harsh  treatment  or  the  infliction  of 
corporal  punishment,  in  case  of  non-payment.6 

This  tax  was  not  imposed  on  the  Christians,  as  some 
would  have  us  think,  as  a  penalty  for  their  refusal  to  accept 
the  Muslim  faith,  but  was  paid  by  them  in  common  with  the 

1  Caetani,  vol.  v.  pp.  424  (§  752),  432.     2  Baladhuri,  pp.  124-5. 

i  A.  von  Kremer  (i),  vol.  i.  pp.  60,  436.        4  A  dirham  is  about  fivepence. 

6  Bell,  pp.  xxv,  173.  e  Abu  Yusuf,  pp.  6q~7l, 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       61 

other  dhimmis  or  non-Muslim  subjects  of   the  state  whose 
religion  precluded  them  from  serving  in  the  army,  in  return 
for  the  protection  secured  for  them  by  the  arms  of  the 
Musalmans.     When  the  people  of  Hirah  contributed  the 
sum  agreed  upon,  they  expressly  mentioned  that  they  paid 
this  jizyah  on  condition  that  "  the  Muslims  and  their  leader 
protect  us  from  those  who  would  oppress  us,  whether  they 
be  Muslims  or  others."  *      Again,  in  the  treaty  made  by 
Khalid  with  some  towns  in  the  neighbourhood    of    Hirah, 
he  writes  :  "  If  we  protect  you,  then  jizyah  is  due  to  us ;  but 
if  we  do  not,  then  it  is  not  due."  2     How  clearly  this  con- 
dition was  recognised  by  the  Muhammadans  may  be  judged 
from  the  following  incident  in  the  reign  of  the  Caliph  'Umar. 
The  Emperor  Heraclius  had  raised  an  enormous  army  with 
which  to  drive  back  the  invading  forces  of  the  Muslims, 
who  had  in  consequence  to  concentrate  all  their  energies 
on    the    impending    encounter.     The    Arab    general,    Abu 
'Ubaydah,  accordingly  wrote  to  the  governors  of  the  con- 
quered cities  of  Syria,  ordering  them  to  pay  back  all  the 
jizyah  that  had  been  collected  from  the  cities,  and  wrote 
to  the  people,  saying,  "  We  give  you  back  the  money  that 
we  took  from  you,  as  we  have  received  news  that  a  strong 
force  is  advancing  against  us.     The  agreement  between  us 
was  that  we  should  protect  you,  and  as  this  is  not  now  in 
our  power,  we  return  you  all  that  we  took.     But  if  we  are 
victorious  we  shall  consider  ourselves  bound  to  you  by  the 
old  terms   of  our  agreement."     In  accordance  with  this 
order,   enormous  sums   were   paid   back   out   of  the  state 
treasury,  and  the  Christians  called  down  blessings  on  the 
heads  of  the  Muslims,  saying,  "  May  God  give  you  rule  over 
us  again  and  make  you  victorious  over  the  Romans;    had 
it  been  they,  they  would  not  have  given  us  back  anything, 
but  would  have  taken  all  that  remained  with  us."  3 

As  stated  above,  the  jizyah  was  levied  on  the  able-bodied 
males,  in  lieu  of  the  military  service  they  would  have  been 
called  upon  to  perform  had  they  been  Musalmans ;  and  it 
is  very  noticeable  that  when  any  Christian  people  served 
in  the  Muslim  army,  they  were  exempted  from  the  payment 

1  Tabari,  Prima  Series,  p.  2055.  2  Id.  p.  2050. 

3  Abu  Yusuf,  p.  81. 


62  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

of  this  tax.  Such  was  the  case  with  the  tribe  of  al-Jura- 
jimah,  a  Christian  tribe  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Antioch, 
who  made  peace  with  the  Muslims,  promising  to  be  their 
allies  and  light  on  their  side  in  battle,  on  condition  that 
they  should  not  be  called  upon  to  pay  jizyah  and  should 
receive  their  proper  share  of  the  booty.1  When  the  Arab 
conquests  were  pushed  to  the  north  of  Persia  in  a.h.  22,  a 
similar  agreement  was  made  with  a  frontier  tribe,  which 
was  exempted  from  the  payment  of  jizyah  in  consideration 
of  military  service.2 

We  find  similar  instances  of  the  remission  of  jizyah  in 
the  case  of  Christians  who  served  in  the  army  or  navy  under 
the  Turkish  rule.  For  example,  the  inhabitants  of  Megaris, 
a  community  of  Albanian  Christians,  were  exempted  from 
the  payment  of  this  tax  on  condition  that  they  furnished  a 
body  of  armed  men  to  guard  the  passes  over  Mounts  Cithaeron 
and  Geranea,  which  lead  to  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth;  the 
Christians  who  served  as  pioneers  of  the  advance-guard  of 
the  Turkish  army,  repairing  the  roads  and  bridges,  were 
likewise  exempt  from  tribute  and  received  grants  of  land 
quit  of  all  taxation ;  3  and  the  Christian  inhabitants  of  Hydra 
paid  no  direct  taxes  to  the  Sultan,  but  furnished  instead  a 
contingent  of  250  able-bodied  seamen  to  the  Turkish  fleet, 
who  were  supported  out  of  the  local  treasury.4 

The  Southern  Rumanians,  the  so-called  Armatoli,5  who 
constituted  so  important  an  element  of  strength  in  the 
Turkish  army  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
and  the  Mirdites,  a  tribe  of  Albanian  Catholics  who  occupied 
the  mountains  to  the  north  of  Scutari,  were  exempt  from 
taxation  on  condition  of  supplying  an  armed  contingent  in 
time  of  war.6  In  the  same  spirit,  in  consideration  of  the 
services  they  rendered  to  the  state,  the  capitation-tax  was 
not  imposed  upon  the  Greek  Christians  who  looked  after 
the  aqueducts  that  supplied  Constantinople  with  drinking 
water,7  nor  on  those  who  had  charge  of  the  powder-magazine 
in   that   city.8     On   the   other  hand,    when   the   Egyptian 

1  Baladhuri,  p.  159.  2  Tabari,  Prima  Series,  p.  2665. 

:i  Marsigli,  vol.  i.  p.  86  (he  calls  them'"  Musellim"). 

4  Finlay,  vol.  vi.  pp.  30,  33.  6  Lazar,  p.  56. 

c  De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  14.  7  Thomas  Smith,  p.  324. 

8  Dorostamus,  p.  326. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       63 

peasants,  although  Muslim  in  faith,  were  made  exempt  from 
military  service,  a  tax  was  imposed  upon  them  as  on  the 
Christians,  in  lieu  thereof.1 

Living  under  this  security  of  life  and  property  and  such 
toleration  of  religious  thought,  the  Christian  community — 
especially  in  the  towns — enjoyed  a  flourishing  prosperity 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Caliphate. 

Mu'awiyah  (661-680)  employed  Christians  very  largely 
in  his  service,  and  other  members  of  the  reigning  house 
followed  his  example.2  Christians  frequently  held  high  posts 
at  court,  e.  g.  a  Christian  Arab,  al-Akhtal,  was  court  poet, 
and  the  father  of  St.  John  of  Damascus,  counsellor  to  the 
caliph  'Abd  al-Malik  (685-705).  In  the  service  of  the 
caliph  al-Mu'tasim  (833-842),  there  were  two  brothers, 
Christians,  who  stood  very  high  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Commander  of  the  Faithful :  the  one,  named  Salmuyah, 
seems  to  have  occupied  somewhat  the  position  of  a 
modern  secretary  of  state,  and  no  royal  documents  were 
valid  until  countersigned  by  him,  while  his  brother, 
Ibrahim,  was  entrusted  with  the  care  of  the  privy  seal, 
and  was  set  over  the  Bayt  al-Mal  or  Public  Treasury, 
an  office  that,  from  the  nature  of  the  funds  and  their  dis- 
posal, might  have  been  expected  to  have  been  put  into  the 
hands  of  a  Muslim;  so  great  was  the  caliph's  personal 
affection  for  this  Ibrahim,  that  he  visited  him  in  his  sickness, 
and  was  overwhelmed  with  grief  at  his  death,  and  on  the 
day  of  the  funeral  ordered  the  body  to  be  brought  to  the 
palace  and  the  Christian  rites  performed  there  with  great 
solemnity.3 

'Abd  al-Malik  appointed  a  certain  Athanasius,  a  Christian 
scholar  of  Edessa,  tutor  to  his  brother,  'Abd  al-'Aziz. 
Athanasius  accompanied  his  pupil,  when  he  was  appointed 
governor  of  Egypt,  and  there  amassed  great  wealth;  he  is 
said  to  have  possessed  4000  slaves,  villages,  houses,  gardens, 
and  gold  and  silver  "  like  stones  ";  his  sons  took  a  dinar 
from  each  of  the  soldiers  when  they  received  their  pay,  and 
as  there  were  30,000  troops  then  in  Egypt,  some  idea  may 
be  formed  of  the  wealth  that  Athanasius  accumulated  during 

1  De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  265.  2  Lammens,  p.  13. 

3  Ibn  Abl  Usaybi'ah,  vol.  i.  p.  164. 


64  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

the  twenty-one  years  that  he  spent  in  that  country.1  At 
the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  a  certain  Abu  Nuh  al-Anbari 
was  secretary  to  Abu  Miisa  b.  Mus'ab,  governor  of  Mosul, 
and  used  his  powerful  influence  for  the  benefit  of  his  Christian 
co-religionists.2 

In  the  reign  of  al-Mu'tadid  (892-902),  the  governor  of 
Anbar,  'Umar  b.  Yusuf,  was  a  Christian,  and  the  caliph  ap- 
proved of  the  appointment  on  the  ground  that  if  a  Christian 
were  found  to  be  competent,  a  post  might  well  be  given  to 
him,  as  there  were  better  reasons  for  trusting  a  Christian 
than  either  a  Jew,  a  Muslim  or  a  Zoroastrian.3  Al-Muwaffaq, 
who  was  virtual  ruler  of  the  empire  during  the  reign  of  his 
brother  al-Mu'tamid  (870-892),  entrusted  the  administra- 
tion of  the  army  to  a  Christian  named  Israel,  and  his  son, 
al-Mu'tadid,  had  as  one  of  his  secretaries  another  Christian, 
Malik  b.  al-Walid.  In  a  later  reign,  that  of  al-Muqtadir 
(908-932),  a  Christian  was  again  in  charge  of  the  war  office.4 

Nasr  b.  Hariin,  the  Prime  Minister  of  'Adud  al-Dawlah 
(949-982),  of  the  Buwayhid  dynasty  of  Persia,  who  ruled 
over  Southern  Persia  and  'Iraq,  was  a  Christian.5  For  a 
long  time,  the  government  offices,  especially  in  the  depart- 
ment of  finance,  were  filled  with  Christians  and  Persians ; G 
to  a  much  later  date  was  such  the  case  in  Egypt,  where 
at  times  the  Christians  almost  entirely  monopolised  such 
posts.7  Particularly  as  physicians,  the  Christians  fre- 
quently amassed  great  wealth  and  were  much  honoured  in 
the  houses  of  the  great.  Gabriel,  the  personal  physician 
of  the  caliph  Harun  al-Rashid,  was  a  Nestorian  Christian 
and  derived  a  yearly  income  of  800,000  dirhams  from  his 
private  property,  in  addition  to  an  emolument  of  280,000 
dirhams  a  year  in  return  for  his  attendance  on  the  caliph; 
the  second  physician,  also  a  Christian,  received  22,000 
dirhams  a  year.8  In  trade  and  commerce,  the  Christians 
also  attained  considerable  affluence  :  indeed  it  was  fre- 
quently their  wealth  that  excited  against  them  the  jealous 

1  Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  p.  475. 

3  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  71  (1.  16).    Abu  Nuh  al-Anbari  wrote  a  refutation 
of  the  Qur'an  and  other  theological  works  (Wright,  p.  191  n.  3). 
3  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  84.  4  Hilal  al-Sabi,  p.  95. 

5  Ibn  al-Athlr,  vol.  ix.  p.  16. 

6  Von  Kremer  (i),  vol.  i.  pp.  167-8.     Lammens,  p.  11. 

7  Renaudot,  pp.  430,  540.  8  Von  Kremer  (1),  vol.  ii.  pp.  180-1. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN   WESTERN  ASIA       65 

cupidity  of  the  mob — a  feeling  that  fanatics  took  advantage 
of,  to  persecute  and  oppress  them.  Further,  the  non- 
Muslim  communities  enjoyed  an  almost  complete  autonomy, 
for  the  government  placed  in  their  hands  the  independent 
management  of  their  internal  affairs,  and  their  religious 
leaders  exercised  judicial  functions  in  cases  that  concerned 
their  co-religionists  only.1  Their  churches  and  monasteries 
were,  for  the  most  part,  not  interfered  with,  except  in  the 
large  cities,  where  some  of  them  were  turned  into  mosques — 
a  measure  that  could  hardly  be  objected  to  in  view  of  the 
enormous  increase  in  the  Muslim  and  corresponding  decrease 
in  the  Christian  population. 

Recent  historical  criticism  has  demonstrated  the  im- 
possibility of  the  legend  that  when  Damascus  was  taken 
by  the  Arabs,  the  churches  were  equally  divided  between  the 
Christians  and  the  conquerors,  on  the  plea  that  while  one 
Muslim  general  made  his  way  into  the  city  by  the  eastern 
gate  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  another  at  the  western  gate 
received  the  submission  of  the  governor  of  the  city;  a 
similar  scrutiny  of  historical  documents  as  well  as  of  the 
topography  of  the  building  has  shown  that  the  great  cathe- 
dral of  St.  John  could  never  have  been  used  in  the  manner 
described  by  some  Arabic  historians  as  a  common  place  of 
worship  for  both  Christians  and  Muslims.2  But  the  very 
fact  that  these  historians  should  have  believed  that  such  an 
arrangement  continued  for  nearly  eighty  years,  testifies  to 
the  early  recognition  of  the  liberty  granted  to  the  Christians 
of  practising  the  observances  of  their  religion. 

The  opinion  of  the  Muhammadan  legists  is  very  diverse 
on  this  question,  from  the  more  liberal  Hanafi  doctrine, 
which  declares  that,  though  it  is  unlawful  to  construct 
churches  and  synagogues  in  Muhammadan  territory,  those 
already  existing  can  be  repaired  if  they  have  been  destroyed 
or  have  fallen  into  decay,  while  in  villages  and  hamlets, 
where  the  tokens  of  Islam  do  not  appear,  new  churches  and 
synagogues  may  be  built — to  the  intolerant  Hanbalite  view 
that  they  may  neither  be  erected  nor  be  restored  when 
damaged  or  ruined.  Some  legists  held  that  the  privileges 
varied  according  to  treaty  rights  :  in  towns  taken  by  force, 

1  Von  Kremer  (i),  vol.  i.  p.  183.        2  Caetani,  vol.  iii.  pp.  350  sq.,  387  sqq. 
F 


66  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

no  new  houses  of  prayer  might  be  erected  by  dhimmis,  but 
if  a  special  treaty  had  been  made,  the  building  of  new 
churches  and  synagogues  was  allowed.1  But  like  so  many 
of  the  lucubrations  of  Muhammadan  legists,  these  prescrip- 
tions bore  but  little  relation  to  actual  facts.2  Schoolmen 
might  agree  that  the  dhimmls  could  build  no  houses 
of  prayer  in  a  city  of  Muslim  foundation,  but  the 
civil  authority  permitted  the  Copts  to  erect  churches 
in  the  new  capital  of  Cairo.3  In  other  cities  also  the 
Christians  were  allowed  to  erect  new  churches  and 
monasteries.  The  very  fact  that  'Umar  II  (717-720),  at 
the  close  of  the  first  century  of  the  Hi j rah,  should  have 
ordered  the  destruction  of  all  recently  constructed  churches,4 
and  that  rather  more  than  a  century  later,  the  fanatical 
al-Mutawakkil  (847-861)  should  have  had  to  repeat  the 
same  order,  shows  how  little  the  prohibition  of  the  building 
of  new  churches  was  put  into  force.5  We  have  numerous 
instances  recorded,  both  by  Christian  and  Muhammadan 
historians,  of  the  building  of  new  churches  :  e.  g.  in  the  reign 
of  'Abd  al-Malik  (685-705),  a  wealthy  Christian  of  Edessa, 
named  Athanasius,  erected  in  his  native  city  a  fine  church 
dedicated  to  the  Mother  of  God,  and  a  Baptistery  in  honour 
of  the  picture  of  Christ  that  was  reputed  to  have  been  sent 
to  King  Abgar;  he  also  built  a  number  of  churches  and 
monasteries  in  various  parts  of  Egypt,  among  them  two 
magnificent  churches  in  Fustat.6  Some  Christian  chamber- 
lains in  the  service  of  'Abd  al-'Aziz  b.  Marwan  (brother  of 
'Abd  al-Malik),  the  governor  of  Egypt,  obtained  permission 
to  build  a  church  in  Halwan,  which  was  dedicated  to  St. 
John,7  though  this  town  was  a  Muslim  creation.  In  a.d.  711 
a  Jacobite  church  was  built  at  Antioch  by  order  of  the  caliph 
al- Walid  (705-715). 8     In  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Yazid 

1  Gottheil,    pp.    360-1.      Goldziher :    Zur     Literatur     des    Ichtilaf     al- 
madahib,  ZDMG.,  vol.  38,  pp.  673-4. 

2  On  this  theoretical  character  of  much  of  Muslim  legal  literature,  see 
Snouck  Hurgonje  :  Mohammedanisches  Recht  in  Theorie  und  Wirklichkeit. 

3  Gottheil,  p.  363. 

4  Gottheil,  pp.   358-9,  however,   doubts  whether  there  is  evidence  for 
attributing  this  intolerance  to  'Umar  II. 

5  Journal  Asiatique,  IVme  serie,  tome  xviii.  (1851),  pp.  433,  450.     Tabari, 
III,  p.  1419. 

6  Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  p.  476.    Renaudot,  p.  189. 

7  Eutychius,  II,  p.  41  init.     Severus  (p.  139)  says  "  two  churches." 

8  Von  Kremer  (1),  vol.  ii.  p.  175. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   WESTERN  ASIA       67 

II  (a.d.  720),  Mar  Elias,  the  Jacobite  Patriarch  of  Antioch, 
made  a  solemn  entry  into  Antioch,  accompanied  by  his 
clergy  and  monks,  to  consecrate  a  new  church  which  he 
had  caused  to  be  built ;  and  in  the  following  year  he  conse- 
crated another  church  in  the  village  of  Sarmada,  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Antioch,  and  the  only  opposition  he  met  with  was 
from  the  rival  Christian  sect  that  accepted  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon.1  In  the  following  reign,  Khalid  al-Qasrl,  who  was 
governor  of  Arabian  and  Persian  'Iraq  from  724  to  J38,  built 
a  church  for  his  mother,  who  was  a  Christian,  to  worship  in.2 
In  759  the  building  of  a  church  at  Nisibis  was  completed,  on 
which  the  Nestorian  bishop,  Cyprian,  had  expended  a  sum 
of  56,000  dinars.3  From  the  same  century  dates  the  church 
of  Abu  Sirjah  in  the  ancient  Roman  fortress  in  old  Cairo.4 
In  the  reign  of  al-Mahdi  (775-785)  a  church  was  erected  in 
Baghdad  for  the  use  of  the  Christian  prisoners  that  had 
been  taken  captive  during  the  numerous  campaigns  against 
the  Byzantine  empire.5  Another  church  was  built  in  the 
same  city,  in  the  reign  of  Harim  al-Rashid  (786-809),  by 
the  people  of  Samalu,  who  had  submitted  to  the  caliph 
and  received  protection  from  him ;  6  during  the  same  reign 
Sergius,  the  Nestorian  Metropolitan  of  Basrah,  received 
permission  to  build  a  church  in  that  city,7  though  it  was  a 
Muslim  foundation,  having  been  created  by  the  caliph 
'Umar  in  the  year  638,  and  a  magnificent  church  was  erected 
in  Babylon  in  which  were  enshrined  the  bodies  of  the 
prophets  Daniel  and  Ezechiel.8  When  al-Ma'mun  (813- 
833)  was  in  Egypt  he  gave  permission  to  two  of  his  chamber- 
lains to  erect  a  church  on  al-Muqattam,  a  hill  near  Cairo; 
and  by  the  same  caliph's  leave,  a  wealthy  Christian,  named 
Bukam,  built  several  fine  churches  at  Burah  in  Egypt.9 
The  Nestorian  Patriarch,  Timotheus,  who  died  a.d.  820, 
erected  a  church  at  Takrit  and  a  monastery  at  Baghdad.10 
In  the  tenth  century,  the  beautiful  Coptic  church  of  Abu 


1  Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  pp.  490,  491. 

2  Ibn  Khallikan,  vol.  i.  p.  485.  3  Elias  of  Nisibis,  p.  128. 

4  A.  J.  Butler  :    The  Ancient  Coptic  Churches  of  Egypt,  vol.  i.  p.  181. 

(Oxford,  1884.)  5  Yaqut,  vol.  ii.  p.  662. 

6  Yaqut,  vol.  ii.  p.  670.  7  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  73. 

8  Ishok  of  Romgla,  p.  266.  9  Eutychius,  II,  p.  58. 
10  Von  Kremer  (1),  vol.  ii.  pp.  175-6. 


68  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Sayfayn  was  built  in  Fustat.1  A  new  church  was  built  at 
Jiddah  in  the  reign  of  al-Zahir,  the  seventh  Fatimid  caliph 
of  Egypt  (1020-1035).2  New  churches  and  monasteries 
were  also  built  in  the  reign  of  the  'Abbasid,  al-Mustadi 
(1170-1180).3  In  1 187  a  church  was  built  at  Fustat  and 
dedicated  to  Our  Lady  the  Pure  Virgin.4 

Indeed,  so  far  from  the  development  of  the  Christian 
Church  being  hampered  by  the  establishment  of  Muham- 
madan  rule,  the  history  of  the  Nestorians  exhibits  a  re- 
markable outburst  of  religious  life  and  energy  from  the 
time  of  their  becoming  subject  to  the  Muslims.5  Alternately 
petted  and  persecuted  by  the  Persian  kings,  in  whose 
dominions  by  far  the  majority  of  the  members  of  this  sect 
were  found,  it  had  passed  a  rather  precarious  existence  and 
had  been  subjected  to  harsh  treatment,  when  war  between 
Persia  and  Byzantium  exposed  it  to  the  suspicion  of  sympa- 
thising with  the  Christian  enemy.  But,  under  the  rule  of 
the  caliphs,  the  security  they  enjoyed  at  home  enabled 
them  to  vigorously  push  forward  their  missionary  enter- 
prises abroad.  Missionaries  were  sent  into  China  and 
India,  both  of  which  were  raised  to  the  dignity  of  metro- 
politan sees  in  the  eighth  century;  about  the  same  period 
they  gained  a  footing  in  Egypt,  and  later  spread  the  Christian 
faith  right  across  Asia,  and  by  the  eleventh  century  had 
gained  many  converts  from  among  the  Tatars.6 

If  the  other  Christian  sects  failed  to  exhibit  the  same 
vigorous  life,  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  Muhammadans. 
All  were  tolerated  alike  by  the  supreme  government,  and 
furthermore  were  prevented  from  persecuting  one  another.7 
In  the  fifth  century,  Barsauma,  a  Nestorian  bishop,  had  per- 
suaded the  Persian  king  to  set  on  foot  a  fierce  persecution 

1  Butler  :  Ancient  Coptic  Churches  of  Egypt,  vol.  i.  p.  76. 

2  Renaudot,  p.  399.        3  Ishok  of  Romgla,  p.  333.        *  Abu  Salih,  p.  92. 
0  A  Dominican  monk  from  Florence,  by  name  Ricoldus  de  Monte  Cruris, 

who  visited  the  East  about  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  and  the  beginning 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  speaks  of  the  toleration  the  Nestorians  had 
enjoyed  under  Muhammadan  rule  right  up  to  his  time  :  "  Et  ego  inveni 
per  antiquas  historias  et  autenticas  aput  Saracenos,  quod  ipsi  Nestorini 
amici  fuerunt  Machometi  et  confederati  cum  eo,  et  quod  ipse  Machometus 
mandauit  suis  posteris,  quod  Nestorinos  maxime  conseruarent.  Quod 
usque  hodie  diligenter  obseruant  ipsi  Sarraceni."      (Laurent,  p.  128.) 

6  J.  Labourt  :    De  Timotheo  I,  Nestorianorum  Patriarcha,  p.  37  sqq. 
(Paris,  1904.)  7  £,  von  Dobschiitz,  p.  390-1. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       69 

of  the  Orthodox  Church,  by  representing  Nestorius  as  a 
friend  of  the  Persians  and  his  doctrines  as  approximating 
to  their  own ;  as  many  as  7800  of  the  Orthodox  clergy,  with 
an  enormous  number  of  laymen,  are  said  to  have  been 
butchered  during  this  persecution.1  Another  persecution 
was  instituted  against  the  Orthodox  by  Khusrau  II,  after 
the  invasion  of  Persia  by  Heraclius,  at  the  instigation  of  a 
Jacobite,  who  persuaded  the  King  that  the  Orthodox  would 
always  be  favourably  inclined  towards  the  Byzantines.2 
But  the  principles  of  Muslim  toleration  forbade  such  acts  of 
injustice  as  these  :  on  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  have  been 
their  endeavour  to  deal  fairly  by  all  their  Christian  subjects  : 
e.  g.  after  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  the  Jacobites  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  expulsion  of  the  Byzantine  authorities  to 
rob  the  Orthodox  of  their  churches,  but  later  they  were 
restored  by  the  Muhammadans  to  their  rightful  owners  when 
these  had  made  good  their  claim  to  possess  them.3 

In  view  of  the  toleration  thus  extended  to  their  Christian 
subjects  in  the  early  period  of  the  Muslim  rule,  the  common 
hypothesis  of  the  sword  as  the  factor  of  conversion  seems 
hardly  satisfactory,  and  we  are  compelled  to  seek  for  other 
motives  than  that  of  persecution.  But  unfortunately  very 
few  details  are  forthcoming  and  we  are  obliged  to  have 
recourse  to  conjecture.4  In  an  age  so  prolific  of  theological 
speculation,  there  may  well  have  been  some  thinkers  whose 
trend  of  thought  had  prepared  them  for  the  acceptance 
of  the  Muhammadan  position.  Such  were  those  Shahrlghan 
or  landed  proprietors  in  Persia  in  the  eighth  century,  who 
were  nominally  Christians,  but  maintained  that  Christ  was 
an  ordinary  man  and  that  he  was  as  one  of  the  Prophets.5 
They  appear  at  times  to  have  given  a  good  deal  of  trouble 

1  Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  p.  439-40. 

2  Makin,  p.  12.  J.  Labourt :  Le  Christianisme  sous  la  dynastie  sassanide, 
p.  139  sq.     (Paris,  1904.) 

3  Renaudot,  p.  169. 

4  Von  Kremer  well  remarks  :  "  Wir  verdanken  dem  unermiidlichen 
Sammelfleiss  der  arabischen  Chronisten  unsere  Kenntniss  der  politischen 
und  militarischen  Geschichte  jener  Zeiten,  welche  so  genau  ist  als  dies  nur 
immer  auf  eine  Entfernung  von  zwolf  Jahrhunderten  der  Fall  sein  kann ; 
allein  gerade  die  innere  Geschichte  jener  denkwiirdigen  Epoche,  die  Ges- 
chichte des  Kampfes  einer  neuen,  rohen  Religion  gegen  die  alten  hoch- 
gebildeten,  zum  Theile  iiberbildeten  Culte  ist  kaum  in  ihren  allg'imeinsten 
Umrissen  bekannt."     (Von  Kremer  (2),  pp.  1-2.) 

5  Thomas  of  Marga,  vol.  ii.  p.  309  sq. 


70  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

to  the  Nestorian  clergy,  who  were  at  great  pains  to  draw 
them  into  the  paths  of  orthodoxy ; 1  but  their  theological 
position  was  more  closely  akin  to  Islam  than  to  Christian 
doctrine,  and  they  probably  went  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the 
converts  after  the  Arab   conquest  of  the  Persian  empire. 
Many   Christian   theologians 2  have   supposed   that   the 
debased   condition — moral   and   spiritual — of   the   Eastern 
Church  of  that  period  must  have  alienated  the  hearts  of 
many  and  driven  them  to  seek  a  healthier  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere in  the  faith  of  Islam  which  had  come  to  them  in  all 
the  vigour  of  new-born  zeal.3     For  example,  Dean  Milman  4 
asks,  "  What  was  the  state  of  the  Christian  world  in  the 
provinces  exposed  to  the  first  invasion  of  Mohammedanism  ? 
Sect  opposed  to  sect,  clergy  wrangling  with  clergy  upon  the 
most  abstruse  and  metaphysical  points  of  doctrine.     The 
orthodox,   the   Nestorians,   the   Eutychians,   the  Jacobites 
were  persecuting  each  other  with  unexhausted  animosity; 
and  it  is  not  judging  too  severely  the  evils  of  religious  con- 
troversy to  suppose  that  many  would  rejoice  in  the  degra- 
dation of  their  adversaries  under  the  yoke  of  the  unbeliever, 
rather  than  make  common  cause  with  them  in  defence  of  the 
common  Christianity.     In  how  many  must  this  incessant 
disputation  have  shaken  the  foundations   of  their  faith  ! 
It  had  been  wonderful  if  thousands  had  not,  in  their  weari- 
ness and  perplexity,  sought  refuge  from  these  interminable 
and  implacable  controversies  in  the  simple,  intelligible  truth 
of  the  Divine  Unity,  though  purchased  by  the  acknow- 
ledgment   of     the    prophetic     mission     of     Mohammed." 
Similarly,   Caetani    sees  in  the  spread    of    Islam,   among 
the    Christians    of   the   Eastern    Churches,  a   revulsion    of 
feeling  from  the  dogmatic  subtleties  introduced  into  Chris- 
tian theology  by  the  Hellenistic  spirit.     "  For   the  East, 
with  its  love  of  clear  and  simple  concepts,  Hellenic  culture 
was,  from  the  religious  point  of  view,  a  misfortune,  because 

1  Thomas  of  Marga,  vol.  ii.  pp.  310,  324  sq. 

2  Cf.  in  addition  to  the  passages  quoted  below,  M'Clintoch  &  Strong's 
Cyclopaedia,  sub  art.  Mohammedanism,  vol.  vi.  p.  420.  James  Freeman 
Clarke  :    Ten  Great  Religions,  Part  ii.  p.  75.     (London,  1883.) 

3  Thus  the  Emperor  Heraclius  is  represented  by  the  Muhammadan 
historian  as  saying,  "  Their  religion  is  a  new  religion  which  gives  them  new 
zeal."     (Tabari,  p.  2103.) 

*  History  of  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  pp.  216-17, 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       71 

it  changed  the  sublime  and  simple  teachings  of  Christ  into 
a  creed  bristling  with  incomprehensible  dogmas,  full  of 
doubts  and  uncertainties;  these  ended  with  producing  a 
feeling  of  deep  dismay  and  shook  the  very  foundations  of 
religious  belief ;  so  that  when  at  last  there  appeared,  coming 
out  suddenly  from  the  desert,  the  news  of  the  new  revela- 
tion, this  bastard  oriental  Christianity,  torn  asunder  by 
internal  discords,  wavering  in  its  fundamental  dogmas, 
dismayed  by  such  incertitudes,  could  no  longer  resist  the 
temptations  of  a  new  faith,  which  swept  away  at  one  single 
stroke  all  miserable  doubts,  and  offered,  along  with  simple, 
clear  and  undisputed  doctrines,  great  material  advantages 
also.  The  East  then  abandoned  Christ  and  threw  itself  into 
the  arms  of  the  Prophet  of  Arabia."  x 

Again,  Canon  Taylor  2  says  :  "  It  is  easy  to  understand 
why  this  reformed  Judaism  spread  so  swiftly  over  Africa 
and  Asia.  The  African  and  Syrian  doctors  had  substituted 
abstruse  metaphysical  dogmas  for  the  religion  of  Christ  : 
they  tried  to  combat  the  licentiousness  of  the  age  by  setting 
forth  the  celestial  merit  of  celibacy  and  the  angelic  excellence 
of  virginity — seclusion  from  the  world  was  the  road  of 
holiness,  dirt  was  the  characteristic  of  monkish  sanctity — 
the  people  were  practically  polytheists,  worshipping  a  crowd 
of  martyrs,  saints  and  angels ;  the  upper  classes  were 
effeminate  and  corrupt,  the  middle  classes  oppressed  by 
taxation,3  the  slaves  without  hope  for  the  present  or  the 
future.  As  with  the  besom  of  God,  Islam  swept  away  this 
mass  of  corruption  and  superstition.  It  was  a  revolt  against 
empty  theological  polemics;  it  was  a  masculine  protest 
against  the  exaltation  of  celibacy  as  a  crown  of  piety.  It 
brought  out  the  fundamental  dogmas  of  religion — the  unity 
and  greatness  of  God,  that  He  is  merciful  and  righteous, 
that  He  claims  obedience  to  His  will,  resignation  and  faith. 
It  proclaimed  the  responsibility  of  man,  a  future  life,  a  day 
of  judgment,  and  stern  retribution  to  fall  upon  the  wicked ; 
and  enforced  the  duties  of  prayer,  almsgiving,  fasting  and 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  pp.  1045-6. 

2  A  paper  read  before  the  Church  Congress  at  Wolverhampton,  October 
7th,  1887. 

3  For  the  oppressive  fiscal  system  under  the  Byzantine  empire,  see 
Gfrorer  :  Byzantinische  Geschichten,  vol.  ii,  pp.  337-9,  389-91,  450. 


72  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

benevolence.  It  thrust  aside  the  artificial  virtues,  the 
religious  frauds  and  follies,  the  perverted  moral  sentiments, 
and  the  verbal  subtleties  of  theological  disputants.  It 
replaced  monkishness  by  manliness.  It  gave  hope  to  the 
slave,  brotherhood  to  mankind,  and  recognition  to  the 
fundamental  facts  of  human  nature." 

Islam  has,  moreover,  been  represented  as  a  reaction 
against  that  Byzantine  ecclesiasticism,1  which  looked  upon 
the  emperor  and  his  court  as  a  copy  of  the  Divine  Majesty 
on  high,  and  the  emperor  himself  as  not  only  the  supreme 
earthly  ruler  of  Christendom,  but  as  High-priest  also.2 
Under  Justinian  this  system  had  been  hardened  into  a 
despotism  that  pressed  like  an  iron  weight  upon  clergy  and 
laity  alike.  In  532  the  widespread  dissatisfaction  in  Con- 
stantinople with  both  church  and  state,  burst  out  into  a 
revolt  against  the  government  of  Justinian,  which  was  only 
suppressed  after  a  massacre  of  35,000  persons.  The  Greens, 
as  the  party  of  the  malcontents  was  termed,  had  made  open 
and  violent  protest  in  the  circus  against  the  oppression  of 
the  emperor,  crying  out,  "  Justice  has  vanished  from  the 
world  and  is  no  more  to  be  found.  But  we  will  become 
Jews,  or  rather  we  will  return  again  to  Grecian  paganism."  3 
The  lapse  of  a  century  had  removed  none  of  the  grounds 
for  the  dissatisfaction  that  here  found  such  violent  expres- 
sion, but  the  heavy  hand  of  the  Byzantine  government 
prevented  the  renewal  of  such  an  outbreak  as  that  of  532 
and  compelled  the  malcontents  to  dissemble,  though  in 
560  some  secret  heathens  were  detected  in  Constantinople 
and  punished.4  On  the  borders  of  the  empire,  however, 
at  a  distance  from  the  capital,  such  malcontents  were  safer, 
and  the  persecuted  heretics,  and  others  dissatisfied  with  the 

1  "  Der  Islam  war  ein  Ruckstoss  gegen  den  Missbrauch,  welchen  Justinian 
mit  der  Menschheit,  besonders  aber  mit  der  christlichen  Religion  trieb, 
deren  oberstes  geistliches  und  weltliches  Haupt  er  zu  sein  behauptete. 
Dass  der  Araber  Mahomed,  welcher  571  der  christlichen  Zeitrechnung, 
sechs  Jahre  nach  dem  Tode  Justinians,  das  Licht  der  Welt  erblickte,  mit 
seiner  Lehre  unerhortes  Gliick  machte,  verdankte  er  grossentheils  dem 
Abscheu,  welchen  die  im  Umkreise  des  byzantinischen  Reiches  angeses- 
senen  Volker,  wie  die  benachbarten  Nationen,  iiber  die  von  dem  Basileus 
begangenen  Greuel  empfanden."  (Gfrorer  :  Byzantinische  Geschichten, 
vol.  ii.  p.  437.) 

2  Id.  vol.  ii.  pp.  296-306,  337.  3  Jd.  vol.  ii.  pp.  442-4, 
f  Id.  vol.  ii.  p.  445. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       73 

Byzantine  state-church,  took  refuge  in  the  East,  and  here 
the  Muslim  armies  would  be  welcomed  by  the  spiritual 
children  of  those  who  a  hundred  years  before  had  desired  to 
exchange  the  Christian  religion  for  another  faith. 

Further,  the  general  adoption  of  the  Arabic  language 
throughout  the  empire  of  the  caliphate,  especially  in  the 
towns  and  the  great  centres  of  population,  and  the  gradual 
assimilation  in  manners  and  customs  that  in  the  course  of 
about  two  centuries  caused  the  numerous  conquered  races  to 
be  largely  merged  in  the  national  life  of  the  ruling  race,  had 
no  doubt  a  counterpart  in  the  religious  and  intellectual  life  of 
many  members  of  the  protected  religions.  The  rationalistic 
movement  that  so  powerfully  influenced  Muslim  theology 
from  the  second  to  the  fifth  century  of  the  Hijrah  may  very 
possibly  have  influenced  Christian  thinkers,  and  turned 
them  from  a  religion,  the  prevailing  tone  of  whose  theology 
seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  Credo  quia  imftossibile.  A 
Muhammadan  writer  of  the  fourth  century  of  the  Hijrah 
has  preserved  for  us  a  conversation  with  a  Coptic  Christian 
which  may  safely  be  taken  as  characteristic  of  the  general 
mental  attitude  of  the  rest  of  the  Eastern  Churches  at  this 
period  : — 

"  My  proof  for  the  truth  of  Christianity  is,  that  I  find 
its  teachings  contradictory  and  mutually  destructive,  for 
they  are  repugnant  to  reason  and  revolting  to  the  intellect, 
on  account  of  their  inconsistency  and  mutual  contrariety. 
No  reflection  can  strengthen  them,  no  discussion  can  prove 
them ;  and  however  thoughtfully  we  may  investigate  them, 
neither  the  intellect  nor  the  senses  can  provide  us  with  any 
argument  in  support  of  them.  Notwithstanding  this,  I 
have  seen  that  many  nations  and  mighty  kings  of  learning 
and  sound  judgment,  have  given  in  their  allegiance  to  the 
Christian  faith;  so  I  conclude  that  if  these  have  accepted 
it  in  spite  of  all  the  contradictions  referred  to,  it  is  because 
the  proofs  they  have  received,  in  the  form  of  signs  and 
miracles,  have  compelled  them  to  submit  to  it."  x 

On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  remembered  that  those 
who  passed  over  from  Christianity  to  Islam,  under  the 
influence  of  the  rationalistic  tendencies  of  the  age,  would 

*  Mas'ucJI,  vol.  ii.  p.  387. 


74  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

find  in  the  Mu'tazilite  presentment  of  Muslim  theology,  very 
much  that  was  common  to  the  two  faiths,  so  that  as  far  as 
the  articles  of  belief  and  the  intellectual  attitude  towards 
many  theological  questions  were  concerned,  the  transition 
was  not  so  violent  as  might  be  supposed.  To  say  nothing 
of  the  numerous  fundamental  doctrines,  that  will  at  once 
suggest  themselves  to  those  even  who  have  only  a  slight 
knowledge  of  the  teachings  of  the  Prophet,  there  were  many 
other  common  points  of  view,  that  were  the  direct  conse- 
quences of  the  close  relationships  between  the  Christian  and 
Muhammadan  theologians  in  Damascus  under  the  Umayyad 
caliphs  as  also  in  later  times;  for  it  has  been  maintained 
that  there  is  clear  evidence  of  the  influence  of  the  Byzantine 
theologians  on  the  development  of  the  systematic  treatment 
of  Muhammadan  dogmatics.  The  very  form  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  oldest  rule  of  faith  in  the  Arabic  language 
suggest  a  comparison  with  similar  treatises  of  St.  John  of 
Damascus  and  other  Christian  fathers.1  The  oldest  Arab 
Sufiism,  the  trend  of  which  was  purely  towards  the  ascetic 
life  (as  distinguished  from  the  later  pantheistic  Sufiism) 
originated  largely  under  the  influence  of  Christian  thought.2 
Such  influence  is  especially  traceable  in  the  doctrines  of  some 
of  the  Mu'tazilite  sects,3  who  busied  themselves  with  specu- 
lations on  the  attributes  of  the  divine  nature  quite  in  the 
manner  of  the  Byzantine  theologians  :  the  Qadariyyah  or 
libertarians  of  Islam  probably  borrowed  their  doctrine  of 
the  freedom  of  the  will  directly  from  Christianity,  while  the 
Murji'ah  in  their  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punish- 
ment were  in  thorough  agreement  with  the  teaching  of  the 
Eastern  Church  on  this  subject  as  against  the  generally 
received  opinion  of  orthodox  Muslims.4  On  the  other  hand, 
the  influence  of  the  more  orthodox  doctors  of  Islam  in  the 
conversion  of  unbelievers  is  attested  by  the  tradition  that 
twenty  thousand  Christians,  Jews  and  Magians  became 
Muslims  when  the  great  Imam  Ibn  Hanbal  died.5     A  cele- 

1  Von  Kremer  (2),  p.  8.  2  Id.  p.  54  and  (3),  p.  32.    Nicholson,  p.  231. 

:!  Among  the  Mu'tazilite  philosophers,  Muhammad  b.  al-Huzayl,  the 
teacher  of  al-Ma'mun,  is  said  to  have  converted  more  than  three  thousand 
persons  to  Islam.     (Ahmad  b.  Yahya  b.  al-Murtada,  p.  26,  1.  7.) 

4  Von  Kremer  (2),  pp.  3,  7-8.  C.  H.  Becker  :  Christliche  Polemik  und 
islamische  Dogmenbildung  (Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie,  xxvi.  1912), 

5  IDn  Khallikan,  vol.  i.  p.  45. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       75 

brated  doctor  of  the  same  sect,  Abu'l-Faraj  b.  al-Jawzi 
(a.d.  1115-1201),  the  most  learned  man  of  his  time,  a  popular 
preacher  and  most  prolific  writer,  is  said  to  have  boasted 
that  just  the  same  number  of  persons  accepted  the  faith  of 
Islam  at  his  hands.1 

Further,  the  vast  and  unparalleled  success  of  the  Muslim 
arms  shook  the  faith  of  the  Christian  peoples  that  came 
under  their  rule  and  saw  in  these  conquests  the  hand  of 
God.2  Worldly  prosperity  they  associated  with  the  divine 
favour  and  the  God  of  battle  (they  thought)  would  surely 
give  the  victory  only  into  the  hands  of  his  favoured  servants. 
Thus  the  very  success  of  the  Muhammadans  seemed  to  argue 
the  truth  of  their  religion. 

The  Islamic  ideal  of  the  brotherhood  of  all  believers  was 
a  powerful  attraction  towards  this  creed,  and  though  the 
Arab  pride  of  birth  strove  to  refuse  for  several  generations 
the  privileges  of  the  ruling  race  to  the  new  converts,  still 
as  "  clients  "  of  the  various  Arab  tribes  to  which  at  first 
they  used  to  be  affiliated,  they  received  a  recognised  position 
in  the  community,  and  by  the  close  of  the  first  century  of 
the  Hijrah  they  had  vindicated  for  this  ideal  its  true  place 
in  Muslim  theology  and  at  least  a  theoretical  recognition  in 
the  state.3 

But  the  condition  of  the  Christians  did  not  always  continue 
to  be  so  tolerable  as  under  the  earlier  caliphs.  In  the 
interests  of  the  true  believers,  vexatious  conditions  were 
sometimes  imposed  upon  the  non-Muslim  population  (or 
dhimmis),  with  the  object  of  securing  for  the  faith- 
ful superior  social  advantages.  Unsuccessful  attempts 
were  made  by  several  caliphs  to  exclude  them  from  the 
public  offices.  Decrees  to  this  effect  were  passed  by  al- 
Mansur  (754-775),  al-Mutawakkil  (847-861),  al-Muqtadir 
(908-932),  and  in  Egypt  by  al-Amir  (1101-1130),  one  of 
the  Fatimid  caliphs,  and  by  the  Mamluk  Sultans  in  the 

1  Wiistenfeld,  p.  103. 

2  Michael  the  Elder,  vol.  ii.  pp.  412-13.  Caetani,  vol.  v.  p.  508.  ("  Le 
vittorie  sui  Greci  e  sui  Persiani  non  solamente  erano  il  trionfo  della 
razza  araba  sulle  popolazioni  delle  provincie  conquistate,  ma  nella  mente 
orientale  che  vede  in  tutto  la  mano  di  Dio,  costituivano  un  trionfo  del 
principio  islamico  su  quello  cristiano  e  mazdeista,  ma  sovrattutto  sui 
cristiano.") 

3  Goldziher,  vol.  i.  chaps.  3  and  4. 


76  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

fourteenth  century.1  But  the  very  fact  that  these  decrees 
excluding  the  dhimmis  from  government  posts  were  so  often 
renewed,  is  a  sign  of  the  want  of  any  continuity  or  per- 
sistency in  putting  such  intolerant  measures  into  practice. 
In  fact  they  may  generally  be  traced  either  to  popular  in- 
dignation excited  by  the  harsh  and  insolent  behaviour  of 
Christian  officials,2  or  to  outbursts  of  fanaticism  which 
forced  upon  the  government  acts  of  oppression  that  were 
contrary  to  the  general  spirit  of  Muslim  rule  and  were 
consequently  allowed  to  lapse  as  soon  as  possible. 

The  beginning  of  a  harsher  treatment  of  the  native 
Christian  population  dates  from  the  reign  of  Harun  al-Rashid 
(786-809)  who  ordered  them  to  wear  a  distinctive  dress  and 
give  up  the  government  posts  they  held  to  Muslims. 
The  first  of  these  orders  shows  how  little  one  at  least  of 
the  ordinances  ascribed  to  'Umar  was  observed,  and  these 
decrees  were  the  outcome,  not  so  much  of  any  purely  re- 
ligious feeling,  as  of  the  political  circumstances  of  the  time. 
The  Christians  under  Muhammadan  rule  have  often  had 
to  suffer  for  the  bad  faith  kept  by  foreign  Christian  powers 
in  their  relations  with  Muhammadan  princes,  and  on  this 
occasion  it  was  the  treachery  of  the  Byzantine  Emperor, 
Nicephorus,  that  caused  the  Christian  name  to  stink  in  the 
nostrils  of  Harun.3  Many  of  the  persecutions  of  Christians 
in  Muslim  countries  can  be  traced  either  to  distrust  of  their 
loyalty,  excited  by  the  intrigues  and  interference  of  Christian 
foreigners  and  the  enemies  of  Islam,  or  to  the  bad  feeling 
stirred  up  by  the  treacherous  or  brutal  behaviour  of  the 
latter  towards  the  Musalmans.  Religious  fanaticism  is, 
however,  responsible  for  many  of  such  persecutions,  as  in 
the  reign  of  the  Caliph  al-Mutawakkil  (847-861),  under 
whom  severe  measures  of  oppression  were  taken  against 
the  Christians.  This  prince  took  advantage  of  the  strong- 
Orthodox  reaction  that  had  set  in  in  Muhammadan  theology 
against  the  rationalistic  and  freethinking  tendencies  that 

1  The  last  of  these  was  prompted  by  the  discovery  of  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  Christians  to  burn  the  city  of  Cairo.  (De  Guignes,  vol.  iv.  pp . 
204-5.)  Gottheil,  p.  359,  Journal  Asiatique,  IVme  serie,  tome  xviii.  (1851), 
pp.  454,  455,  463,  484,  491. 

2  Assemani,  torn.  hi.  pars.  2,  p.  c.     Renaudot,  pp.  432,  603,  607. 

3  Muir  :   The  Caliphate,  p.  475. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN  WESTERN  ASIA       yy 

had  had  free  play  under  former  rulers, — and  came  forward 
as  the  champion  of  the  extreme  orthodox  party,  to  which 
the  mass  of  the  people  as  contrasted  with  the  higher  classes 
belonged,1  and  which  was  eager  to  exact  vengeance  for  the 
persecutions  it  had  itself  suffered  in  the  two  preceding 
reigns ;  2  he  sought  to  curry  their  favour  by  persecuting 
the  Mu'tazilites,  forbidding  all  further  discussions  on  the 
Qur'an  and  declaring  the  doctrine  that  it  was  created,  to 
be  heretical ;  he  had  the  followers  of  'AH  imprisoned  and 
beaten,  pulled  down  the  tomb  of  Husayn  at  Karbala'  and 
forbade  pilgrimages  to  be  made  to  the  site.  The  Christians 
shared  in  the  sufferings  of  the  other  heretics;  for  al- 
Mutawakkil  put  rigorously  into  force  the  rules  that  had 
been  passed  in  former  reigns  prescribing  a  distinction  in 
the  dress  of  dhimmis  and  Muslims,  ordered  that  the  Christians 
should  no  longer  be  employed  in  the  public  offices,  doubled 
the  capitation-tax,  forbade  them  to  have  Muslim  slaves  or 
use  the  same  baths  as  the  Muslims,  and  harassed  them  with 
several  other  restrictions. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  historians  of  the  Nestorian 
Church — which  had  to  suffer  most  from  this  persecution — 
describe  it  as  something  new  and  individual  to  al-Muta- 
wakkil,  and  as  ceasing  with  his  death.3  One  of  his 
successors,  al-Muqtadir  (a.d.  908-932),  renewed  these  regu- 
lations, which  the  lapse  of  half  a  century  had  apparently 
caused  to  fall  into  disuse. 

Other  outbursts  of  fanaticism  led  to  the  destruction  of 
churches  and  synagogues,4  and  the  terror  of  such  persecution 
led  to  the  defection  of  many  from  the  Christian  Church.5 
But  such  oppression  was  contrary  to  the  tolerant  spirit  of 
Islam,  and  to  the  teaching  traditionally  ascribed  to  the 
Prophet ; 6  and  the  fanatical  party  tried  in  vain  to  enforce 

1  Von  Kremer  (3),  p.  246.  2  Muir  (1),  pp.  508,  516-17. 

3  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  79  sq.     Saliba  b.  Yuhanna,  p.  71. 

4  Gottheil,  p.  364  sqq.  5  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  114  (11.  14-16). 

6  This  tradition  appears  in  several  forms,  e.  g.  "  Whoever  wrongs  one  with 
whom  a  compact  has  been  made  (i.  e.  a  dhimmi)  and  lays  on  him  a  burden 
beyond  his  strength,  I  will  be  his  accuser."  (Baladhuri.  p.  162,  fin.) 
(Yahya  b.  Adam,  p.  54  (fin),  adds  the  words,  "  till  the  day  of  judgment.") 
"  Whoever  does  violence  to  a  dhimmi  who  has  paid  his  jizyah  and  evidenced 
his  submission — his  enemy  am  I."  (Usd  al-Ghaba,  quoted  by  Goldziher, 
in  the  Jewish  Encyclopaedia,  vol.  vi.  p.  655.)  The  Christian  historian 
al-Makin  (p.  11)  gives,  "  Whoever  torments  the  dhimmis,  torments  me." 


78  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  persistent  execution  of  these  oppressive  measures  for 
the  humiliation  of  the  non-Muslim  population.  "  The 
1  ulama  '  (i.  e.  the  learned,  the  clergy)  consider  this  state  of 
things;  they  weep  and  groan  in  silence,  while  the  princes 
who  had  the  power  of  putting  down  these  criminal  abuses 
only  shut  their  eyes  to  them."  1  The  rules  that  a  fanatical 
priesthood  may  lay  down  for  the  repression  of  unbelievers 
cannot  always  be  taken  as  a  criterion  of  the  practice  of  civil 
governments  :  it  is  failure  to  realise  this  fact  that  has 
rendered  possible  the  highly-coloured  pictures  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  Christians  under  Muhammadan  rule,  drawn  by 
writers  who  have  assumed  that  the  prescriptions  of  certain 
Muslim  theologians  represented  an  invariable  practice.  Such 
outbursts  of  persecution  seem  in  some  cases  to  have  been 
excited  by  the  alleged  abuse  of  their  position  by  those 
Christians  who  held  high  posts  in  the  service  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  they  aroused  considerable  hostility  of  feeling  towards 
themselves  by  their  oppression  of  the  Muslims,  it  being  said 
that  they  took  advantage  of  their  high  position  to  plunder 
and  annoy  the  faithful,  treating  them  with  great  harshness 
and  rudeness  and  despoiling  them  of  their  lands  and  money. 
Such  complaints  were  laid  before  the  caliphs  al-Mansur 
(754-775),  al-Mahdi  (775~785)>  al-Ma'mun  (813-833),  al- 
Mutawakkil  (847-861),  al-Muqtadir  (908-932),  and  many 
of  their  successors.2  They  also  incurred  the  odium  of  many 
Muhammadans  by  acting  as  the  spies  of  the  'Abbasid  dynasty 
and  hunting  down  the  adherents  of  the  displaced  Umayyad 
family.3  At  a  later  period,  during  the  time  of  the  Crusades 
they  were  accused  of  treasonable  correspondence  with  the 
Crusaders  4  and  brought  on  themselves  severe  restrictive 
measures   which   cannot   justly   be   described   as   religious 

persecution. 

In  proportion  as  the  lot  of  the  conquered  peoples  became 
harder  to  bear,  the  more  irresistible  was  the  temptation  to 
free  themselves  from  their  miseries,  by  the  words,  "  There 
is  no  god  but  God  :    Muhammad  is  the  Apostle  of   God." 

1  Journal  Asiatique,  IVme  serie,  tome  xix.  p.  109.  (Paris,  1852.)  Sec 
also  R.  Gottheil :  A  Fetwa  on  the  appointment  of  Dhimmis  to  office. 
(Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  203  sqq.) 

2  Belin,  pp.  435-40,  442,  448,  456,  459-61,  479-80. 

3  Id.  p.  435,  n.  2.  J  Id.  p.  478. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN  ASIA       79 

When  the  state  was  in  need  of  money — as  was  increasingly 
the  case — the  subject  races  were  more  and  more  burdened 
with  taxes,  so  that  the  condition  of  the  non-Muslims  was 
constantly  growing  more  unendurable,  and  conversions  to 
Islam  increased  in  the  same  proportion.  The  dreary  record 
of  scandals,  with  which  the  pages  of  the  Christian  historians 
of  this  later  period  are  filled,  would  suggest  that  the 
Christian  Churches  had  failed  to  develop  a  moral  fibre  strong 
enough  to  endure  the  stress  of  adverse  conditions,  and 
when  persecution  came,  the  reason  for  the  defection  that 
followed  might — as  the  historian  of  the  Nestorian  Church 
suggests  * — be  sought  for  in  the  prevailing  negligence  in 
the  performance  of  religious  duties  and  the  evil  life  of  the 
clergy. 

Further  causes  that  contributed  to  the  decrease  of  the 
Christian  population  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
children  of  the  numerous  Christian  captive  women  who 
were  carried  off  to  the  harems  of  the  Muslims  had  to  be 
brought  up  in  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  and  in  the  fre- 
quent temptation  that  was  offered  to  the  Christian  slave 
by  an  indulgent  master,  of  purchasing  his  freedom  at  the 
price  of  conversion  to  Islam.  But  of  any  organised  attempt 
to  force  the  acceptance  of  Islam  on  the  non-Muslim  popu- 
lation, or  of  any  systematic  persecution  intended  to  stamp 
out  the  Christian  religion,  we  hear  nothing.  Had  the 
caliphs  chosen  to  adopt  either  course  of  action,  they  might 
have  swept  away  Christianity  as  easily  as  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  drove  Islam  out  of  Spain,  or  Louis  XIV  made 
Protestantism  penal  in  France,  or  the  Jews  were  kept  out 
of  England  for  350  years.  The  Eastern  Churches  in  Asia 
were  entirely  cut  off  from  communion  with  the  rest  of 
Christendom,  throughout  which  no  one  would  have  been 
found  to  lift  a  finger  on  their  behalf,  as  heretical  com- 
munions. So  that  the  very  survival  of  these  Churches 
to   the   present    day  is    a   strong  proof  of  the  generally 

1  Marl  b.  Sulayman  (p.  115,  11.  1-2)  offers  this  explanation  of  the  defec- 
tions that  followed  the  persecution  towards  the  close  of  the  tenth  century. 

Hi 

^j&+)\  O^oj   *s«Jlj   9~4J*H  tV  ^v^'  5j*-" 


8o  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

tolerant  attitude  of  the  Muhammadan  governments  towards 
them.1 

Of  the  ancient  Churches  in  Western  Asia  at  the  time  of 
the  Muhammadan  conquest,  there  still  survive  about  150,000 
Nestorians,2  and  their  number  would  have  been  larger  but 
for  the  proselytising  efforts  of  other  Christian  Churches; 
the  Chaldees  who  have  submitted  to  the  Church  of  Rome 
number  70,000,  in  1898  the  Nestorian  Bishop  Mar  Jonan, 
with  several  of  the  clergy  and  15,000  Nestorians  were  re- 
ceived into  the  Orthodox  Russian  Church ;  and  numbers  of 
Nestorians  have  also  become  Protestants.3  The  Jacobite 
Patriarch  of  Antioch  exercises  jurisdiction  over  about 
80,000  members  of  this  ancient  Church,  while  25,000  families 
of  Uniat  Jacobites  obey  the  Syrian  Catholic  Patriarch.4 
Belonging  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  there  are  28,836 
families  under  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch  and  more  than 
15,000  persons  under  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,5  while 
the  Melchites  or  Greek-Catholics  number  about  130, 000. 6 
The  Maronite  Church,  which  has  been  in  union  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  since  the  year  1182,  has  a  following 
of  300, 000. 7 

The  marvel  is  that  these  isolated  and  scattered  com- 
munities should  have  survived  so  long,  exposed  as  they 
have  been  to  the  ravages  of  war,  pestilence  and  famine,8 
living  in  a  country  that  was  for  centuries  a  continual  battle- 
field, overrun  by  Turks,  Mongols  and  Crusaders,'  it  being 

1  The  Caliph  of  Egypt,  al-Hakim  (a.d.  996-1020),  did  in  fact  order  all 
the  Jews  and  Christians  to  leave  Egypt  and  emigrate  into  the  Byzantine 
territory,  but  yielded  to  their  entreaties  to  revoke  his  orders.  (Maqrizi  (1), 
p.  91.)  It  would  have  been  quite  possible,  however,  for  him  to  have 
enforced  its  execution  as  it  would  have  been  for  the  ferocious  Salim  I 
(1512-1520),  who  with  the  design  of  putting  an  end  to  all  religious  differ- 
ences in  his  dominions  caused  40,000  Shi'ahs  to  be  massacred,  to  have  com- 
pleted this  politic  scheme  by  the  extermination  of  the  Christians  also. 
But  in  allowing  himself  to  be  dissuaded  from  this  design,  he  most  certainly 
acted  in  accordance  with  the  general  policy  adopted  by  Muhammadan 
rulers  towards  their  Christian  subjects.     (Finlay,  vol.  v.  pp.  29-30.) 

2  Silbernagl,  p.  268.  3  Id.  p.  354.  *   Id.  pp.  307,  360. 
5  Id.  p.  25-6.                             «  Id.  p.  335.  7  Id.  p.  384. 

8  See  A.  von  Kremer  (1),  vol.  ii.  pp.  490-2. 

9  The  sack  of  Constantinople  by  the  Crusaders  in  1204  may  be  taken 
as  a  type  of  the  treatment  that  the  Eastern  Christians  met  with  at  the 
hands  of  the  Latins.  Barhebraeus  complains  that  the  monastery  of  Harran 
was  sacked  and  plundered  by  Count  Goscelin,  Lord  of  Emessa,  in  11 84,  just 
as  though  he  had  been  a  Saracen  or  a  Turk.  (Barhebraeus  (1),  vol.  ii. 
pp.  506-8.) 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN  WESTERN  ASIA       81 

further  remembered  that  they  were  forbidden  by  the 
Muhammadan  law  to  make  good  this  decay  of  their  numbers 
by  proselytising  efforts — if  indeed  they  had  cared  to  do  so, 
for  they  seem  (with  the  exception  of  the  Nestorians)  even 
before  the  Muhammadan  conquest,  to  have  lost  that  mission- 
ary spirit,  without  which,  as  history  abundantly  shows,  no 
healthy  life  is  possible  in  a  Christian  Church.  It  has  also 
been  suggested  that  the  monastic  ideal  of  continence  so  wide- 
spread in  the  East,  and  the  Christian  practice  of  monogamy, 
together  with  the  sense  of  insecurity  and  their  servile  con- 
dition, may  have  acted  as  checks  on  the  growth  of  the 
Christian  population.1 

Of  the  details  of  conversion  to  Islam  we  have  hardly  any 
information.  At  the  time  of  the  first  occupation  of  their 
country  by  the  Arabs,  the  Christians  appear  to  have  gone 
over  to  Islam  in  very  large  numbers.  Some  idea  of  the 
extent  of  these  early  conversions  in  'Iraq  for  example  may 
be  formed  from  the  fact  that  the  income  from  taxation  in 
the  reign  of  'Umar  was  from  ioo  to  120  million  dirhams, 
while  in  the  reign  of  'Abd  al-Malik,  about  fifty  years  later, 
it  had  sunk  to  forty  millions  :  while  this  fall  in  the  revenue 
is  largely  attributable  to  the  devastation  caused  by  wars 
and  insurrections,  still  it  was  chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that 
large  numbers  of  the  population  had  become  Muhammadan 
and  consequently  could  no  longer  be  called  upon  to  pay  the 
capitation-tax.2 

This  same  period  witnesses  the  conversion  of  large  numbers 
of  the  Christians  of  Khurasan,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  of 
a  contemporary  ecclesiastic,  the  Nestorian  Patriarch  Isho'- 
yabh  III,  addressed  to  Simeon,  the  Metropolitan  of  Rev- 
Ardashir  and  Primate  of  Persia.  We  possess  so  very  few 
Christian  documents  of  the  first  century  of  the  Hi j rah, 
and  this  letter  bears  such  striking  testimony  to  the  peaceful 
character  of  the  spread  of  the  new  faith,  and  has  moreover 
been  so  little  noticed  by  modern  historians — that  it  may  well 
be  quoted  here  at  length.  "  Where  are  thy  sons,  O  father 
bereft  of  sons  ?  Where  is  that  great  people  of  Merv,  who 
though  they  beheld  neither  sword,  nor  fire  or  tortures,  capti- 

1  H.  H.  Milman,  vol.  ii.  p.  218. 

2  A.  von  Kremer  (i),  vol.  i.  p.  172. 


82  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

vated  only  by  love  for  a  moiety  of  their  goods,  have  turned 
aside,  like  fools,  from  the  true  path  and  rushed  headlong 
into  the  pit  of  faithlessness — into  everlasting  destruction, 
and  have  utterly  been  brought  to  nought,  while  two  priests 
only  (priests  at  least  in  name),  have,  like  brands  snatched 
from  the  burning,  escaped  the  devouring  flames  of  infidelity. 
Alas,  alas  !     Out  of  so  many  thousands  who  bore  the  name 
of  Christians,  not  even  one  single  victim  was  consecrated 
unto  God  by  the  shedding  of  his  blood  for  the  true  faith. 
Where,  too,  are  the  sanctuaries  of  Kirman  and  all  Persia  ? 
it  is  not  the  coming  of  Satan  or  the  mandates  of  the  kings 
of  the  earth  or  the  orders  of  governors  of  provinces  that  have 
laid  them  waste  and  in  ruins — but  the  feeble  breath  of  one 
contemptible  little  demon,  who  was  not  deemed  worthy  of 
the  honour  of  demons  by  those  demons  who  sent  him  on  his 
errand,  nor  was  endowed  by  Satan  the  seducer  with  the 
power  of  diabolical  deceit,  that  he  might  display  it  in  your 
land ;  but  merely  by  the  nod  of  his  command  he  has  thrown 
down  all  the  churches  of  your  Persia.  .  .  .  And  the  Arabs, 
to  whom  God  at  this  time  has  given  the  empire  of  the  world, 
behold,  they  are  among  you,  as  ye  know  well  :    and  yet 
they  attack  not  the  Christian  faith,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
they  favour  our  religion,  do  honour  to  our  priests  and  the 
saints  of  the  Lord,   and  confer  benefits  on  churches  and 
monasteries.     Why  then  have  your  people  of  Merv  aban- 
doned their  faith  for  the  sake  of  these  Arabs  ?   and  that,  too, 
when  the  Arabs,  as  the  people  of  Merv  themselves  declare, 
have  not  compelled  them  to  leave  their  own  religion  but 
suffered  them  to  keep  it  safe  and  undefiled  if  they  gave  up 
only  a  moiety  of  their  goods.     But  forsaking  the  faith  which 
brings  eternal  salvation,  they  clung  to  a  moiety  of  the  goods 
of  this  fleeting  world  :   that  faith  which  whole  nations  have 
purchased  and  even  to  this  day  do  purchase  by  the  shedding 
of  their  blood  and  gain  thereby  the  inheritance  of  eternal 
life,  your  people  of  Merv  were  willing  to  barter  for  a  moiety 
of  their  goods — and  even  less."  1     The  reign  of  the  caliph 
'Umar  II  (a.d.  717-720)  particularly  was  marked  with  very 
extensive  conversions  :    he  organised  a  zealous  missionary 
movement  and  offered  every  kind  of  inducement  to  the 

1  Assemani,  torn.  iii.  Pars  Prima,  pp.  130-1. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM  IN   WESTERN  ASIA       83 

conquered  peoples  to  accept  Islam,  even  making  them 
grants  of  money ;  on  one  occasion  he  is  said  to  have  given 
a  Christian  military  officer  the  sum  of  1000  dinars  to  induce 
him  to  accept  Islam.1  He  instructed  the  governors  of  the 
provinces  to  invite  the  dhimmis  to  the  Muslim  faith,  and 
al-Jarrah  b.  'Abd  Allah,  governor  of  Khurasan,  is  said  to 
have  converted  about  4000  persons.2  He  is  even  said  to 
have  written  a  letter  to  the  Byzantine  Emperor,  Leo  III, 
urging  on  him  the  acceptance  of  the  faith  of  Islam.3  He 
abrogated  the  decree  passed  in  a.d.  700  for  the  purpose 
of  arresting  the  impoverishment  of  the  treasury,  according 
to  which  the  convert  to  Islam  was  not  released  from  the 
capitation-tax,  but  was  compelled  to  continue  to  pay  it  as 
before ;  even  though  the  dhimmi  apostatised  the  very  day 
before  his  yearly  payment  of  the  jizyah  was  due  or  while 
his  contribution  was  actually  being  weighed  in  the  scales, 
it  was  to  be  remitted  to  the  new  convert.4  He  no  longer 
exacted  the  kharaj  from  the  Muhammadan  owners  of  landed 
property,  and  imposed  upon  them  the  far  lighter  burden  of 
a  tithe.  These  measures,  though  financially  most  ruinous, 
were  eminently  successful  in  the  way  the  pious-minded  caliph 
desired  they  should  be,  and  enormous  numbers  hastened  to 
enrol  themselves  among  the  Muslims.5 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  such  worldly 
considerations  were  the  only  influences  at  work  in  the 
conversion  of  the  Christians  to  Islam.  The  controversial 
works  of  St.  John  of  Damascus,  of  the  same  century,  give 
us  glimpses  of  the  zealous  Muslim  striving  to  undermine  by 
his  arguments  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  faith.  The 
very  dialogue  form  into  which  these  treatises  are  thrown,  and 
the  frequent  repetition  of  such  phrases  as  "If  the  Saracen 
asks  you,"— "  If  the  Saracen  says  .  .  .  then  tell  him  "  .  .  . 
— give  them  an  air  of  vraisemblance  and  make  them  appear 
as  if  they  were  intended  to  provide  the  Christians  with  ready 
answers  to  the  numerous  objections  which  their  Muslim 
neighbours  brought  against  the  Christian  creed.6  That 
the  aggressive  attitude  of  the  Muhammadan  disputant  is 

1  Ibn  Sa'd,  Tabaqat,  vol.  v.  p.  258.  2  Id.  p.  285. 

3  Mahbub  al-Manbiji,  p.  358  (11.  2-3). 

4  Ibn  Sa'd,  Tabaqat,  vol.  v.  p.  262.  5  August  Muller,  vol.  1.  p.  440. 
6  Migne  :  Patr.  Gr.,  torn.  96,  pp.  1336-48. 


84  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

most    prominently  brought    forward  in  these   dialogues  is 
only  what  might  be  expected,  it  being  no  part  of  this  great 
theologian's  purpose  to  enshrine  in  his  writings  an  apology 
for  Islam.     His  pupil,  Bishop  Theodore  Abu  Ourrah,  also 
wrote  several  controversial  dialogues  1  with  Muhammadans, 
in  which  the  disputants  range  over  all  the  points  of  dispute 
between  the  two  faiths,  the  Muslim  as  before  being  the  first 
to  take  up  the  cudgels,  and  enabling  us  to  form  some  slight 
idea  of  the  activity  with  which  the  cause  of  Islam  was  prose- 
cuted at  this  period.     "  The  thoughts  of  the  Agarenes,"  says 
the  bishop,  "  and  all  their  zeal,  are  directed  towards  the 
denial  of  the  divinity  of  God  the  Word,  and  they  strain  every 
effort  to  this  end."  2     The  Nestorian  Patriarch,  Timotheus, 
used  to  hold  discussions  on  religious  matters  in  the  presence 
of  the  caliphs,  al-Hadi  and  Hariin  al-Rashid,  and  embodied 
them  in  a  work  that  is  now  lost.3     Timotheus  had  secured 
his   election  to  the  patriarchate  in  the  face  of   the   active 
opposition  of  many  of  the  most  powerful  ecclesiastics  of  his 
own  Church ;  among  these  was  Joseph,  the  metropolitan  of 
Merv,  who  intrigued  against  him  with  the  caliph,  al-Mahdi 
(775-785),  but  was  persuaded  by  the  caliph  to  accept  Islam 
and  was  rewarded  for  his  apostasy  with  rich  presents  and 
an  official  appointment  in  Basrah.4 

These  details  from  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Hijrah 
are  meagre  in  the  extreme  and  rather  suggest  the  existence 
of  proselytising  efforts  than  furnish  definite  facts.  The 
earliest  document  of  a  distinctly  missionary  character  which 
has  come  down  to  us,  would  seem  to  date  from  the  reign  of 
al-Ma'mun  (813-833),  and  takes  the  form  of  a  letter  5  written 
by  a  cousin  of  the  caliph  to  a  Christian  Arab  of  noble  birth 
and  of  considerable  distinction  at  the  court,  and  held  in 
high  esteem  by  al-Ma'mun  himself.  In  this  letter  he  begs 
his  friend  to  embrace  Islam,  in  terms  of  affectionate  appeal 
and  in  language  that  strikingly  illustrates  the  tolerant 
attitude  of  the  Muslims  towards  the  Christian  Church  at 
this  period.  This  letter  occupies  an  almost  unique  place 
in  the  early  history  of  the  propagation  of  Islam,  and  has 

1  Migne  :  Patr.  Gr.,  torn.  97,  pp.  1528-9,  1548-61. 

2  Id.  p.  1557.  3  'Amr  b.  Mattai,  p.  65.  4  Id.  p.  72. 

8  Risalah  'Abd  Allah  b.  Isma'Il  al-Hashimi  ila  'Abd  al-Masih  b.  Ishaq 
al-Kindi,  pp.  1-37.     (London,  1885.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       85 

on  this  account  been  given  in  full  in  an  appendix.1  In  the 
same  work  we  have  a  report  of  a  speech  made  by  the  caliph 
at  an  assembly  of  his  nobles,  in  which  he  speaks  in  tones  of 
the  strongest  contempt  of  those  who  had  become  Muham- 
madans  merely  out  of  worldly  and  selfish  motives,  and 
compares  them  to  the  Hypocrites  who  while  pretending  to 
be  friends  of  the  Prophet,  in  secret  plotted  against  his  life. 
But  just  as  the  Prophet  returned  good  for  evil,  so  the  caliph 
resolves  to  treat  these  persons  with  courtesy  and  forbearance 
until  God  should  decide  between  them.2  The  record  of  this 
complaint  on  the  part  of  the  caliph  is  interesting  as  indi- 
cating that  disinterested  and  genuine  conviction  was 
expected  and  looked  for  in  the  new  convert  to  Islam,  and 
that  the  discovery  of  self-seeking  and  unworthy  motives 
drew  upon  him  the  severest  censure. 

Al-Ma'mun  himself  was  very  zealous  in  his  efforts  to 
spread  the  faith  of  Islam,  and  sent  invitations  to  unbe- 
lievers even  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  his  dominions, 
such  as  Transoxania  and  Farghanah.3  At  the  same  time 
he  did  not  abuse  his  royal  power,  by  attempting  to  force 
his  own  faith  upon  others  :  when  a  certain  Yazdanbakht, 
a  leader  of  the  Manichaean  sect,  came  on  a  visit  to  Baghdad 4 
and  held  a  disputation  with  the  Muslim  theologians,  in  which 
he  was  utterly  silenced,  the  caliph  tried  to  induce  him  to 
embrace  Islam.  But  Yazdanbakht  refused,  saying,  "  Com- 
mander of  the  faithful,  your  advice  is  heard  and  your  words 
have  been  listened  to ;  but  you  are  one  of  those  who  do  not 
force  men  to  abandon  their  religion."  So  far  from  resenting 
the  ill-success  of  his  efforts,  the  caliph  furnished  him  with 
a  bodyguard,  that  he  might  not  be  exposed  to  insult  from 
the  fanatical  populace.5 

1  Appendix  I.  For  an  account  of  Muslim  controversial  literature,  see 
Appendix  II. 

2  Kindi,  pp.  111-13.  3  Baladhurl,  pp.  430. 

*  It  is  very  probable  that  the  occasion  of  this  visit  of  Yazdanbakht  to 
Baghdad  was  the  summoning  of  a  great  assembly  of  the  leaders  of  all  the 
religious  bodies  of  the  period,  by  al-Ma'mun,  when  it  had  come  to  his  ears 
that  the  enemies  of  Islam  declared  that  it  owed  its  success  to  the  sword 
and  not  to  the  power  of  argument  :  in  this  meeting,  the  Muslim  doctors 
defended  their  religion  against  this  imputation,  and  the  unbelievers  are 
said  to  have  acknowledged  that  the  Muslims  had  satisfactorily  proved 
their  point.  (Ahmad  b.  Yahya  b.  al-Murtada  :  Al-munyah  wa'1-amal  fi 
sharh  kitab  al-milal  wa'1-nihal.  British  Museum,  Or.  3937,  fol.  53  (b), 
11.  9-1 1.)  6  Kitab  al-Fihrist,  vol.  i.  p.  338. 


86  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Some  scanty  references  are  made  by  Christian  historians 
to  cases  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  who  became  Muham- 
madans,  e.  g.  George,  Bishop  of  Bahrayn,  about  the  middle 
of  the  ninth  century,  having  been  deposed  from  his  office 
for  some  ecclesiastical  offence,  exchanged  the  Christian 
faith  for  that  of  Islam,1  and  the  conversion  of  a  brother 
of  Gabriel,  metropolitan  of  Fars  about  the  middle  of  the 
tenth  century,  only  receives  mention  because  the  fact  of 
his  having  become  a  Muslim  was  alleged  as  disqualifying 
Gabriel  for  election  to  the  patriarchate  of  the  Nestorian 
church.2 

In  the  early  part  of  the  same  century,  Theodore,  the 
Nestorian  Bishop  of  Beth  Garmai,  became  a  Muslim,  and 
there  is  no  mention  of  any  force  or  compulsion  by  the  ecclesi- 
astical historian  3  who  records  the  fact,  as  there  undoubtedly 
would  have  been,  had  such  existed.  Some  years  later 
(between  a.d.  962  and  979),  Philoxenos,  a  Jacobite  Bishop 
of  Adharbayjan,  also  became  a  Muslim,4  and  in  the  following 
century,  in  1016,  Ignatius,5  the  Jacobite  Metropolitan  of 
Takrit,  who  had  held  this  office  for  twenty-five  years,  set 
out  for  Baghdad  and  embraced  Islam  in  the  presence  of  the 
caliph  al-Qadir,  taking  the  name  of  Abu  Muslim.6  It 
would  be  exceedingly  interesting  if  an  Apologia  pro  Vita 
Sua  had  survived  to  reveal  to  us  the  religious  development 
that  took  place  in  the  mind  of  either  of  these  converts. 
The  Christian  chronicler  hints  at  immorality  in  the  last 
three  cases,  but  such  an  accusation  uncorroborated  by  any 
further  evidence  is  open  to  suspicion,7  much  as  it  would  be 

1  Barhebraeus  (i),  vol.  iii.  p.  194. 

2  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  101  (11.  3-4). 

3  Barhebraeus  (1),  vol.  iii.  p.  230.  4  Id.,  (1),  vol.  iii.  p.  248. 

5  All  the  Jacobite  Patriarchs  assumed  the  name  of  Ignatius ;  before  his 
consecration  he  was  called  Mark  bar  Cjlqi. 

6  Barhebraeus  (1),  vol.  iii.  pp.  288-90.  Elias  of  Nisibis,  pp.  153-4.  He 
returned  to  the  Christian  faith,  however,  before  his  death,  which  took 
place  about  twenty  years  later.  Two  similar  cases  are  recorded  in  the 
annals  of  the  Jacobite  Patriarchs  of  Antioch  in  the  sixteenth  century  :  of 
these  one,  named  Joshua,  became  a  Muhammadan  in  1517,  but  afterwards 
recanting  fled  to  Cyprus  (at  that  time  in  the  hands  of  the  Venetians), 
where  prostrate  at  the  door  of  a  church  in  penitential  humility  he  suffered 
all  who  went  in  or  out  to  tread  over  his  body;  the  other,  Ni'mat  Allah 
(flor.  1560),  having  abjured  Christianity  for  Islam,  sought  absolution  of 
Pope  Gregory  XIII  in  Rome.      (Barhebraeus  (1),  vol.  ii.  pp.  847-8.) 

7  In  fact  Elias  of  Nisibis,  the  contemporary  chronicler  of  the  conversion 
of  the  Jacobite  Patriarch,  makes  no  mention  of  such  a  failing,  nor  does 
Marl  b.  Sulayman  (pp.  1 15-16),  the  historian  of  the  rival  Nestorian  Church, 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       87 

if  brought  forward  by  a  Roman  Catholic  when  recording 
the  conversion  of  a  priest  of  his  own  communion  to  the 
Protestant  faith.  It  is  doubtless  owing  to  their  exalted 
position  in  the  Church  that  the  conversion  of  these  prominent 
ecclesiastics  of  two  hostile  Christian  sects  has  been  handed 
down  to  us,  while  that  of  more  obscure  individuals  has  not 
been  recorded.  As  Barhebraeus  brings  his  ecclesiastical 
chronicle  nearer  to  his  own  time,  he  gives  fuller  details  of  the 
career  of  such  converts,  e.  g.  in  recording  the  public  lapse 
of  some  of  the  Jacobite  bishops,  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  he  makes  particular  mention  of  Aaron,  bishop  of  a 
town  in  Khurasan,  as  having  become  a  Muhammadan  after 
having  been  convicted  of  some  moral  fault ;  repenting  of 
this  change,  he  wished  to  regain  his  episcopal  status,  and 
when  this  was  refused  him,  went  to  Constantinople  and 
abjured  the  Monophysite  doctrines  of  the  Jacobite  Church; 
then  apparently  dissatisfied  with  the  reception  he  received 
in  Constantinople,  he  returned  to  the  Jacobite  Patriarch, 
but  a  second  time  went  over  to  Islam  "  without  any  reason  "  ; 
then  repenting  again,  he  finally  ended  his  days  among  the 
Maronites  of  Mount  Lebanon.1  A  contemporary  of  Bar- 
hebraeus, in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century — Daniel, 
Bishop  of  Khabur — who  is  said  to  have  been  proficient  in 
secular  learning,  sought  to  be  appointed  to  the  diocese  of 
Aleppo,  but  disappointed  in  this  ambition,  he  abandoned 
the  Christian  faith  and  to  the  grief  and  shame  of  all  Christian 
people  "  became  a  Muslim ;  but  God  (praise  be  to  His 
grace  !)  soon  consoled  his  afflicted  people  and  took  away  the 
shame  from  the  redeemed,  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord ;  for  a 
few  months  later  that  unhappy  wretch  died  miserably  in  a 
caravanserai ;  his  name  perished,  he  was  taken  away  out  of 
our  midst,  and  no  man  knoweth  his  abiding  place."  2 

But  that  these  conversions  were  not  merely  isolated 
instances  we  have  the  valuable  evidence  of  Jacques  de  Vitry, 
Bishop  of  Acre  (1216-1225),  who  thus  speaks  of  the  Eastern 
Church   from  his   experience   of  it   in  the   Holy  Land  : — 

though  he  accuses  him  of  plundering  the  sacred  vessels  and  ornaments  of 
the  churches.  As  Wright  (Syriac  Literature,  p.  192)  says  of  Joseph  of 
Merv,  "  We  need  not  believe  all  the  evil  that  Barhebraeus  tells  us  of  this 
unhappy  man." 

1  Barhebraeus  (1),  vol,  ii.  p.  518,  ?  Id.  vol.  ii,  p.  712  sq. 


88  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

"  Weakened  and  lamentably  ensnared,  nay  rather  grievously 
wounded,  by  the  lying  persuasions  of  the  false  prophet  and 
by  the  allurements  of  carnal  pleasure,  she  hath  sunk  down, 
and  she  that  was  brought  up  in  scarlet,  hath  embraced 
dunghills."  1 

So  far  the  Christian  Churches  that  have  been  described  as 
coming  within  the  sphere  of  Muhammadan  influence,  have 
been  the  Orthodox  Eastern  Church  and  the  heretical  com- 
munions that  had  sprung  out  of  it.  But  with  the  close  of 
the  eleventh  century  a  fresh  element  was  added  to  the 
Christian  population  of  Syria  and  Palestine,  in  the  large 
bodies  of  Crusaders  of  the  Latin  rite  who  settled  in  the 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem  and  the  other  states  founded  by  the 
Crusaders,  which  maintained  a  precarious  existence  for 
nearly  two  centuries.  During  this  period,  occasional  con- 
versions to  Islam  were  made  from  among  these  foreign 
immigrants.  In  the  first  Crusade,  for  example,  a  body  of 
Germans  and  Lombards  under  the  command  of  a  certain 
knight,  named  Rainaud,  had  separated  themselves  from 
the  main  body  and  were  besieged  in  a  castle  by  the  Saljuq 
Sultan,  Arslan ;  on  pretence  of  making  a  sortie,  Rainaud  and 
his  personal  followers  abandoned  their  unfortunate  com- 
panions and  went  over  to  the  Turks,  among  whom  they 
embraced  Islam.2 

The  history  of  the  ill-fated  second  Crusade  presents  us 
with  a  very  remarkable  incident  of  a  similar  character.  The 
story,  as  told  by  Odo  of  Deuil,  a  monk  of  St.  Denis,  who, 
in  the  capacity  of  private  chaplain  to  Louis  VII,  accompanied 
him  on  this  Crusade  and  wrote  a  graphic  account  of  it,  runs  as 
follows.  While  endeavouring  to  make  their  way  overland 
through  Asia  Minor  to  Jerusalem  the  Crusaders  sustained  a 
disastrous  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Turks  in  the  mountain- 
passes  of  Phrygia  (a.d.  1148),  and  with  difficulty  reached 
the  seaport  town  of  Attalia.  Here,  all  who  could  afford 
to  satisfy  the  exorbitant  demands  of  the  Greek  merchants, 
took  ship  for  Antioch ;  while  the  sick  and  wounded  and  the 
mass  of  the  pilgrims  were  left  behind  at  the  mercy  of  their 
treacherous  allies,  the  Greeks,  who  received  five  hundred 

1  Historia  Orientalis,  C.  15  (p.  45). 

2  Pe  Guignes,  tome  ii.  (Seconde  Partie),  p.  15. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       89 

marks  from  Louis,  on  condition  that  they  provided  an 
escort  for  the  pilgrims  and  took  care  of  the  sick  until  they 
were  strong  enough  to  be  sent  on  after  the  others.  But  no 
sooner  had  the  army  left,  than  the  Greeks  informed  the 
Turks  of  the  helpless  condition  of  the  pilgrims,  and  quietly 
looked  on  while  famine,  disease  and  the  arrows  of  the  enemy 
carried  havoc  and  destruction  through  the  camp  of  these 
unfortunates.  Driven  to  desperation,  a  party  of  three  or 
four  thousand  attempted  to  escape,  but  were  surrounded 
and  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Turks,  who  now  pressed  on  to  the 
camp  to  follow  up  their  victory.  The  situation  of  the 
survivors  would  have  been  utterly  hopeless,  had  not  the 
sight  of  their  misery  melted  the  hearts  of  the  Muhammadans 
to  pity.  They  tended  the  sick  and  relieved  the  poor  and 
starving  with  open-handed  liberality.  Some  even  bought 
up  the  French  money  which  the  Greeks  had  got  out  of  the 
pilgrims  by  force  or  cunning,  and  lavishly  distributed  it 
among  the  needy.  So  great  was  the  contrast  between  the 
kind  treatment  the  pilgrims  received  from  the  unbelievers 
and  the  cruelty  of  their  fellow-Christians,  the  Greeks,  who 
imposed  forced  labour  upon  them,  beat  them  and  robbed 
them  of  what  little  they  had  left,  that  many  of  them  volun- 
tarily embraced  the  faith  of  their  deliverers.  As  the  old 
chronicler  says  :  "  Avoiding  their  co-religionists  who  had 
been  so  cruel  to  them,  they  went  in  safety  among  the  infidels 
who  had  compassion  upon  them,  and,  as  we  heard,  more 
than  three  thousand  joined  themselves  to  the  Turks  when 
they  retired.  Oh,  kindness  more  cruel  than  all  treachery  ! 
They  gave  them  bread  but  robbed  them  of  their  faith,  though 
it  is  certain  that  contented  with  the  services  they  performed, 
they  compelled  no  one  among  them  to  renounce  his 
religion."  * 

The  increasing  intercourse  between  Christians  and  Muslims, 
the  growing  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  Crusaders 
of  the  virtues  of  their  opponents,  which  so  strikingly  dis- 

1  Odo  cle  Diogilo.  (De  Ludovici  vii.  Itinere.  Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  torn, 
cxcv.  p.  1243.)  "  Vitantes  igitur  sibi  crudeles  socios  lidei,  inter  inndeles 
sibi  compatientes  ibant  securi,  et  sicut  audivimus  plusquam  tria  millia 
iuvenum  sunt  Mis  recedentibus  sociati.  O  pietas  omni  proditione  crude- 
lior  !  Dantes  panem  fidem  tollebant,  quamvis  certum  sit  quia,  contenti 
servitio,  neminem  negare  cogebant." 


90  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

tinguishes  the  later  from  the  earlier  chroniclers  of  the 
Crusades,1  the  numerous  imitations  of  Oriental  manners 
and  ways  of  life  by  the  Franks  settled  in  the  Holy  Land, 
did  not  fail  to  exercise  a  corresponding  influence  on  religious 
opinions.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  this 
influence  is  the  tolerant  attitude  of  many  of  the  Christian 
Knights  towards  the  faith  of  Islam — an  attitude  of  mind 
that  was  most  vehemently  denounced  by  the  Church.  When 
Usama  b.  Munqidh,  a  Syrian  Amir  of  the  twelfth  century, 
visited  Jerusalem,  during  a  period  of  truce,  the  Knights 
Templar,  who  had  occupied  the  Mas j id  al-Aqsa,  assigned  to 
him  a  small  chapel  adjoining  it,  for  him  to  say  his  prayers  in, 
and  they  strongly  resented  the  interference  with  the  devo- 
tions of  their  guest  on  the  part  of  a  newly- arrived  Crusader, 
who  took  this  new  departure  in  the  direction  of  religious 
freedom  in  very  bad  part.2  It  would  indeed  have  been 
strange  if  religious  questions  had  not  formed  a  topic  of  dis- 
cussion on  the  many  occasions  when  the  Crusaders  and  the 
Muslims  met  together  on  a  friendly  footing,  during  the 
frequent  truces,  especially  when  it  was  religion  itself  that 
had  brought  the  Crusaders  into  the  Holy  Land  and  set  them 
upon  these  constant  wars.  When  even  Christian  theo- 
logians were  led  by  their  personal  intercourse  with  the 
Muslims  to  form  a  juster  estimate  of  their  religion,  and 
contact  with  new  modes  of  thought  was  unsettling  the 
minds  of  men  and  giving  rise  to  a  swarm  of  heresies,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  many  should  have  been  drawn  into  the 
pale  of  Islam.3  The  renegades  in  the  twelfth  century  were 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  be  noticed  in  the  statute  books  of 
the  Crusaders,  the  so-called  Assises  of  Jerusalem,  according 
to  which,  in  certain  cases,  their  bail  was  not  accepted.4 

It  would  be  interesting  to  discover  who  were  the  Muslims 
who  busied  themselves  in  winning  these  converts  to  Islam, 
but  they  seem  to  have  left  no  record  of  their  labours.  We 
know,  however,  that  they  had  at  their  head  the  great  Saladin 
himself,  who  is  described  by  his  biographer  as  setting  before 

1  Guizot  :    Histoire  de  la  civilisation  en  Europe,  p.  234.     (Paris,  1882.) 

2  Usama  b.  Munqidh,  p.  99. 

3  Prutz,  pp.  266-7. 

4  Assises  de  la  Cour  des  Bourgeois.     (Recueil  des  historiens  des  Croisades, 
Assises  de  Jerusalem,  tome  ii,  p.  325.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       91 

his  Christian  guest  the  beauties  of  Islam  and  urging  him  to 
embrace  it.1 

The  heroic  life  and  character  of  Saladin  seems  to 
have  exercised  an  especial  fascination  on  the  minds  of  the 
Christians  of  his  time ;  some  even  of  the  Christian  knights 
were  so  strongly  attracted  towards  him  that  they  aban- 
doned the  Christian  faith  and  their  own  people  and  joined 
themselves  to  the  Muslims ;  such  was  the  case,  for  example, 
with  a  certain  English  Templar,  named  Robert  of  St.  Albans, 
who  in  a.d.  1 185  gave  up  Christianity  for  Islam  and  after- 
wards married  a  grand-daughter  of  Saladin.2  Two  years 
later,  Saladin  invaded  Palestine  and  utterly  defeated  the 
Christian  army  in  the  battle  of  Hittin,  Guy,  king  of  Jeru- 
salem, being  among  the  prisoners.  On  the  eve  of  the 
battle,  six  of  his  knights,  "  possessed  with  a  devilish  spirit," 
deserted  the  king  and  escaped  into  the  camp  of  Saladin, 
where  of  their  own  accord  they  became  Saracens.3  At  the 
same  time  Saladin  seems  to  have  had  an  understanding  with 
Raymund  III,  Count  of  Tripoli,  according  to  which  he  was 
to  induce  his  followers  to  abandon  the  Christian  faith  and 
go  over  to  the  Muslims ;  but  the  sudden  death  of  the  Count 
effectually  put  a  stop  to  the  execution  of  this  scheme.4 

The  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  successes  of  Saladin  in  the 
Holy  Land  stirred  up  Europe  to  undertake  the  third  Crusade, 
the  chief  incident  of  which  was  the  siege  of  Acre  (a.d.  1 189- 
1191).  The  fearful  sufferings  that  the  Christian  army  was 
exposed  to,  from  famine  and  disease,  drove  many  of  them 
to  desert  and  seek  relief  from  the  cravings  of  hunger  in  the 
Muslim  camp.  Of  these  deserters,  many  made  their  way 
back  again  after  some  time  to  the  army  of  the  Crusaders ; 
on  the  other  hand,  many  elected  to  throw  in  their  lot  with 
the  Muslims;  some,  taking  service  under  their  former 
enemies,  still  remained  true  to  the  Christian  faith  and  (we 
are  told)  were  well  pleased  with  their  new  masters,  while 
others  embracing  Islam  became  good  Muslims.5  The  con- 
version of  these  deserters  is  recorded  also  by  the  chronicler 
who  accompanied  Richard  I  upon  this  Crusade  : — "  Some 

1  Baha  al-Din,  p.  25.  2  Roger  Hoveden,  vol.  ii.  p.  307. 

3  Benedict  of  Peterborough,  vol.  ii.  pp.  11-12. 

4  Id.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  20-1.      Roger  Hoveden,  vol.  ii.  pp.  316,  322. 

5  Abu  Shamah,  p.  150. 


92  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

of  our  men  (whose  fate  cannot  be  told  or  heard  without 
grievous  sorrow)  yielding  to  the  severity  of  the  sore  famine, 
in  achieving  the  salvation  of  the  body,  incurred  the  damna- 
tion of  their  souls.  For  after  the  greater  part  of  the  affliction 
was  past,  they  deserted  and  fled  to  the  Turks  :  nor  did  they 
hesitate  to  become  renegades;  in  order  that  they  might 
prolong  their  temporal  life  a  little  space,  they  purchased 
eternal  death  with  horrid  blasphemies.  O  baleful  traffick- 
ing !  0  shameful  deed  beyond  all  punishment  !  O  foolish 
man  likened  unto  the  foolish  beasts,  while  he  flees  from  the 
death  that  must  inevitably  come  soon,  he  shuns  not  the 
death  unending."  x 

From  this  time  onwards  references  to  renegades  are  not 
infrequently  to  be  met  with  in  the  writings  of  those  who 
travelled  to  the  Holy  Land  and  other  countries  of  the  East. 
The  terms  of  the  oath  which  was  proposed  to  St.  Louis  by 
his  Muhammadan  captors  when  he  was  called  upon  to 
promise  to  pay  the  ransom  imposed  upon  him  (a.d.  1250), 
were  suggested  by  certain  whilom  priests  who  had  become 
Muslims ;  2  and  while  this  business  of  paying  the  ransom 
was  still  being  carried  on,  another  renegade,  a  Frenchman, 
born  at  Provins,  came  to  bring  a  present  to  the  king  :  he 
had  accompanied  King  John  of  Jerusalem  on  his  expedition 
against  Damietta  in  1219  and  had  remained  in  Egypt, 
married  a  Muhammadan  wife  and  become  a  great  lord  in 
that  country.3  The  danger  of  the  pilgrims  to  the  Holy 
Land  becoming  converts  to  Islam  was  so  clearly  recognised 
at  this  time  that  in  a  "  Remembrance,"  written  about  1266 
by  Amaury  de  la  Roche,  the  master  of  the  Knights  Templar 
in  France,  he  requests  the  Pope  and  the  legates  of  France 
and  Sicily  to  prevent  the  poor  and  the  aged  and  those  in- 
capable of  bearing  arms  from  crossing  the  sea  to  Palestine, 
for  such  persons  either  got  killed  or  were  taken  prisoners  by 
the  Saracens  or  turned  renegades.4  Ludolf  de  Suchem,  who 
travelled  in  the  Holy  Land  from  1336  to  1341,  speaks  of 
three  renegades  he  found  at  Hebron;  they  had  come 
from  the  diocese  of  Minden  and  had  been  in  the  service  of  a 

1  Itinerarium  Peregrinorum  et  Gesta  Regis  Richardi,  p.  131.  (Chronicles 
and  Memorials  of  the  reign  of  Richard  I.  Edited  by  William  Stubbs.) 
(London,  1864.)  2  Joinville,  p.  238. 

3  Id.  p.  262.  4  Mas  Latrie  (1),  vol.  ii.  p.  72. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       93 

Westphalian  knight,  who  was  held  in  high  honour  by  the 
Soldan  and  other  Muhammadan  princes.1 

These  scattered  notices  are  no  doubt  significant  of  more 
extensive  conversions  of  Christians  to  Islam,  of  which  no 
record  has  come  down  to  us  :  e.  g.  there  were  said  to  be 
about  25,000  renegades  in  the  city  of  Cairo  towards  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century,2  and  there  must  have  been  many 
also  to  be  found  in  the  cities  of  the  Holy  Land  after  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  Latin  princedoms  of  the  East.  But  the 
Muhammadan  historians  of  this  period  seem  to  have  been 
too  busily  engaged  in  recording  the  exploits  of  princes  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  dynasties,  to  turn  their  attention  to 
religious  changes  in  the  lives  of  obscure  individuals;  and 
(as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover)  they  as  little  notice 
the  conversions  of  Christians  to  Islam  as  of  those  of  their  own 
co-religionists  to  Christianity.  Consequently,  we  have  to 
depend  for  our  knowledge  of  both  of  these  classes  of  events 
on  Christian  writers,  who,  while  they  give  us  detailed  and 
sympathetic  accounts  of  the  latter,  bear  unwilling  testimony 
to  the  existence  of  instances  of  the  former  and  represent 
the  motives  of  the  renegades  in  the  worst  light  possible. 
The  possibility  of  any  Christian  becoming  converted  to 
Islam  from  honest  conviction,  probably  never  entered  into 
the  head  of  any  of  these  writers,  and  even  had  such  an  idea 
occurred  to  them  they  would  hardly  have  ventured  to  expose 
themselves  to  the  thunders  of  ecclesiastical  censure  by 
giving  open  expression  to  it. 

As  an  example  of  the  rare  instances  of  such  a  conversion 
being  recorded,  the  account  may  here  be  cited  which  Fiirer 
von  Haimendorf,  who  was  in  Cairo  in  1565,  gives  of  the 
conversion  of  a  German  scholar  who  had  studied  in  the 
University  of  Leipzig.  "  Sed  dum  nos  hanc  moram  Cairi 
nectimus,  accidit  ut  Justus  quidam  Stevenius  Germanus 
Hamelensis  qui  in  iisdem  aedibus  nobiscum  habitaverat,  fide 
Christianorum  abnegata  Turcarum  religioni  se  initiandum 
atque  circumcidendum  obtulerit.  Vir  erat  doctus,  qui  diu 
se  Witebergae  ac  Lipsiae  studiis  operam  dedisse  saepe  nobis 

1  Ludolf  de  Suchem,  p.  71. 

2  Lionardo    Frescobaldi,    quoted    in    the    preface    of    Defremery    and 
Sanguinetti's  edition  of  Ibn  Batutah,  vol.  i.  p.  xl. 


94 


THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 


narrabat  :  verum  de  hoc  facto  interrogatus,  peculiarem 
nunc  sibi  Spiritum  adesse  ajebat,  sine  cujus  instinctu  nihil 
vel  facere  sibi,  vel  cogitare  fas  esset ;  quae  hominis  apostasia 
nimium  quantum  animos  nostros  commovit,  et  ad  fugam 
quasi  excitavit.  Eodem  quoque  die  Judaeus  quidam,  qui 
paucis  diebus  ante  religionem  Mahumetanam  amplexus 
fuerat,  triumphali  pompa  per  urbem  circumducebatur ;  quod 
idem  cum  Stevenio  isto  futurum  esse,  Janissarii  quidam  nobis 
afnrmabant."  1 

From  the  historical  sources  quoted  above,  we  have  as 
little  information  respecting  the  number  of  these  converts 
as  of  the  proselytising  efforts  made  to  induce  them  to  change 
their  faith.  A  motive  frequently  assigned  for  going  over 
to  Islam  is  the  desire  to  escape  the  death  penalty  by  means 
of  apostasy.  European  travellers  make  frequent  mention 
of  such  cases.  A  late  example  of  such  an  account  may  be 
selected,  for  the  picturesqueness  of  its  language,  from  the 
report  of  a  Jesuit,  who  was  in  Cairo  in  1627 ;  he  saw  a  Copt 
who,  having  allowed  himself  to  be  carried  away  "  partly 
by  passion  and  partly  by  the  violence  of  an  indiscreet  zeal, 
had  killed  his  brother  with  his  own  hand,  in  detestation  of 
his  having  in  a  dastardly  manner  left  Jesus  Christ  to  embrace 
Mahometanism,  in  order  to  deliver  himself  from  the  vexation 
of  the  Turks.  The  poor  man  was  at  once  seized  in  the  heat 
of  his  crime,  and  he  boldly  confessed  that  the  renegade, 
unworthy  of  being  his  brother,  could  only  wipe  out  so  black 
a  spot  by  his  blood.  He  was  urged  to  abandon  his  faith  in 
order  to  save  his  life,"  but  he  declared  that  he  was  resolved 
to  die  a  Christian ;  the  cruel  torments,  however,  inflicted  on 
him  by  the  executioners,  weakened  his  resolution  and  he 
yielded  at  the  last  moment.  "  This  disaster  changed  him 
in  a  moment  from  a  confessor  into  a  renegade,  from  a  martyr 
into  an  apostate,  from  a  saint  into  one  of  the  damned,  and 
from  an  angel  into  a  veritable  devil.  He  made  the  pro- 
fession of  faith  or  rather  of  perfidy,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Mahometans  ...  he  was  set  at  liberty,  the  liberty  not  of 
the  sons  of  God,  but  of  the  sons  of  perdition."  Later  on, 
the  reproaches  of  his  conscience  caused  him  again  to  recant 

1  Christophori  Fiireri  ab  Haimendorf  Itinerarium  ^gypti,  p.  42. 
(Norimbergae,   1620.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA       95 

and  he  was  put  to  death  by  the  Muhammadans  for  his 
apostasy.1 

The  monk  Burchard,2  writing  about  1283,  a  few  years 
before  the  Crusaders  were  driven  out  of  their  last  strong- 
holds and  the  Latin  power  in  the  East  came  utterly  to  an 
end — represents  the  Christian  population  as  largely  out- 
numbering the  Muslims  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Muham- 
madan  world,  the  latter  (except  in  Egypt  and  Arabia) 
forming  not  more  than  three  or  four  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
population.  This  language  is  undoubtedly  exaggerated 
and  the  good  monk  was  certainly  rash  in  assuming  that 
what  he  observed  in  the  cities  of  the  Crusaders  and  of  the 
kingdom  of  Little  Armenia  held  good  in  other  parts  of  the 
East.  But  his  words  may  be  certainly  taken  to  indicate 
that  during  the  period  of  the  Crusades  there  had  been  no 
widespread  conversion  to  Islam,  and  that  when  the  Muham- 
madans resumed  their  sovereignty  over  the  Holy  Land, 
they  extended  the  same  toleration  to  the  Christians  as 
before,  suffering  them  to  "  purchase  peace  and  quiet  "  by 
the  payment  of  the  jizyah.  The  presumption  is  that  the 
conversions  that  took  place  were  of  individual  Christians, 
who  were  persuaded  in  their  own  minds  before  they  took  the 
final  step.  Instances  have  already  been  given  of  Christians 
who  took  service  under  Muhammadan  masters,  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  their  own  faith,  and  the  Assises  of  Jerusalem 
made  a  distinction  between  "  those  who  have  denied  God 

1  Le  Voyage  en  Ethiopie  entrepris  par  le  Pere  Aymard  Guerin.  (Rabbath, 
pp.  17-18.) 

2  "  Notandum  autem  in  rei  veritate,  licet  quidam  contrarium  senciant, 
qui  ea  volunt  asserere,  que  non  viderunt,  quod  oriens  totus  ultra  mare 
Yndiam  et  Ethiopian!  nomen  Christi  conritetur  et  predicat,  preter  solos 
Sarracenos  et  quosdam  Turcomannos,  qui  in  Cappadocia  sedem  habent,  ita 
quod  pro  certo  assero,  sicut  per  memet  ipsum  vidi  et  ab  aliis,  quibus  notum 
erat,  audivi,  quod  semper  in  omni  loco  et  regno  preterquam  in  Egypto 
et  Arabia,  ubi  plurimum  habitant  Sarraceni  et  alii  Machometum  sequentes, 
pro  uno  Sarraceno  triginta  vel  amplius  invenies  Christianos.  Verum 
tamen,  quod  Christiani  omnes  transmarini  natione  sunt  orientales,  qui 
licet  sint  Christiani,  quia  tamen  usum  armorum  non  habent  multum,  cum 
impugnantur  a  Sarracenis,  Tartaris,  vel  aliis  quibuscumque,  subiciuntur 
eis  et  tributis  pacem  et  quietem  emunt,  et  Sarraceni  sive  alii,  qui  eis  domi- 
nantur,  balivos  suos  et  exactores  in  terris  illis  ponunt.  Et  inde  contigit, 
quod  regnum  illud  dicitur  esse  Sarracenorum,  cum  tamen  in  rei  veritate 
sunt  omnes  Christiani  preter  ipsos  balivos  et  exactores  et  aliquos  de  familia 
ipsorum,  sicut  oculis  meis  vidi  in  Cilicia  et  Armenia  minori,  que  est  subdita 
dominio  Tartarorum."  (Burchardi  de  Monte  Sion  Descriptio  Terrae 
Sancta?,  p.  90.) 


96  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

and  follow  another  law  "  and  "  all  those  who  have  done 
armed  service  to  the  Saracens  and  other  miscreants  against 
the  Christians  for  more  than  a  year  and  a  day."  * 

The  native  Christians  certainly  preferred  the  rule  of  the 
Muhammadans  to  that  of  the  Crusaders,2  and  when  Jeru- 
salem fell  finally  and  for  ever  into  the  hands  of  the  Muslims 
(a.d.  1244),  the  Christian  population  of  Palestine  seems  to 
have  welcomed  the  new  masters  and  to  have  submitted 
quietly  and  contentedly  to  their  rule.3 

This  same  sense  of  security  of  religious  life  under  Muslim 
rule  led  many  of  the  Christians  of  Asia  Minor,  also,  about 
the  same  time,  to  welcome  the  advent  of  the  Saljuq  Turks 
as  their  deliverers  from  the  hated  Byzantine  government, 
not  only  on  account  of  its  oppressive  system  of  taxation, 
but  also  of  the  persecuting  spirit  of  the  Greek  Church,  which 
had  with  such  cruelty  crushed  the  heresies  of  the  Paulicians 
and  the  Iconoclasts.  In  the  reign  of  Michael  VIII  (1261- 
1282),  the  Turks  were  often  invited  to  take  possession  of  the 
smaller  towns  in  the  interior  of  Asia  Minor  by  the  inhabi- 
tants, that  they  might  escape  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
empire ;  and  both  rich  and  poor  often  emigrated  into  Turkish 
dominions.4 

Some  account  still  remains  to  be  given  of  two  other 
Christian  Churches  of  Western  Asia,  viz.  the  Armenian 
and  the  Georgian.  Of  the  former  it  may  be  said  that  of 
all  the  Eastern  Churches  that  have  come  under  Muham- 
madan  rule,  the  Armenian  Church  has  probably  given  fewer 
of  its  members  (in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  community) 
to  swell  the  ranks  of  Islam,  than  any  other.  So  in  spite 
of  the  interest  that  attaches  to  the  story  of  the  struggle  of 

1  Recueil  des  historiens  des  Croisades.  (Assises  de  Jerusalem,  tome  i. 
p.  325.)  2  Prutz,  pp.  146-7,  150. 

3  The  prelates  of  the  Holy  Land  wrote  as  follows,  in  1244,  concerning 
the  invasion  of  the  Khwarizmians,  whom  Sultan  Ayyub  had  called  in  to 
assist  him  in  driving  out  the  Crusaders  : — "  Per  totam  terram  usque  ad 
partes  Nazareth  et  Saphet  libere  nullo  resistente  discurrunt,  occupantes 
eandem,  et  inter  se  quasi  propriam  dividentes,  per  villas  et  cazalia  Christia- 
norum  legatos  et  bajulos  praeficiunt,  suscipientes  a  rusticis  redditus  et 
tributa,  quae  Christianis  praestare  solebant,  qui  jam  Christianis  hostes 
effecti  et  rebelles  dictis  Corosminis  universaliter  adhaeserunt."  (Matthei 
Parisiensis  Chronica  Majora,  ed.  H.  R.  Luard,  vol.  iv.  p.  343.)  (London, 
1872-83.) 

4  Finlay,  vol.  iii.  pp.  358-9.  J.  H.  Krause:  Die  Byzantiner  des  Mittelalters, 
p.  276.     (Halle,  1869.) 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  WESTERN  ASIA       97 

this  brave  nation  against  overwhelming  odds  and  of  the 
fidelity  with  which  it  has  clung  to  the  Christian  faith — 
through  centuries  of  warfare  and  oppression,  persecution 
and  exile — it  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
volume  to  do  more  than  briefly  indicate  its  connection  with 
the  history  of  the  Muhammadans.  The  Armenian  kingdom 
survived  the  shock  of  the  Arab  conquest,  and  in  the  ninth 
century  rose  to  be  a  state  of  some  importance  and  flourished 
during  the  decay  of  the  caliphate  of  Baghdad,  but  in  the 
eleventh  century  was  overthrown  by  the  Saljuq  Turks.  A 
band  of  fugitives  founded  the  kingdom  of  Lesser  Armenia, 
but  this  too  disappeared  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
national  life  of  the  Armenian  people  still  survived  in  spite 
of  the  loss  of  their  independence,  and,  as  was  the  case  in 
Greece  under  the  Turks,  their  religion  and  the  national 
church  served  as  the  rallying  point  of  their  eager,  undying 
patriotism.  Though  a  certain  number,  under  the  pressure 
of  cruel  persecution,  have  embraced  Islam,  yet  the  bulk 
of  the  race  has  remained  true  to  its  ancient  faith.  As 
Ta vernier  x  rather  unsympathetically  remarks,  "  There  may 
be  some  few  Armenians,  that  embrace  Mahometanism  for 
worldly  interest,  but  they  are  generally  the  most  obstinate 
persons  in  the  world,  and  most  firm  to  their  superstitious 
principles." 

The  Georgian  Church  (founded  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fourth  century)  was  an  offshoot  from  the  Greek  Church, 
with  which  she  has  always  remained  in  communion,  although 
from  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  the  Patriarch  or 
Katholikos  of  the  Georgian  Church  declared  himself  inde- 
pendent. Torn  asunder  by  internal  discords  and  exposed  to 
the  successive  attacks  of  Greeks,  Persians,  Arabs,  Turks  and 
Mongols,  the  history  of  this  heroic  warrior  people  is  one 
of  almost  uninterrupted  warfare  against  foreign  foes  and  of 
fiercely  contested  feuds  between  native  chiefs  :  the  reigns 
of  one  or  two  powerful  monarchs  who  secured  for  their 
subjects  brief  intervals  of  peace,  serving  only  to  bring  out 
in  more  striking  contrast  the  normally  unsettled  state  of 
the  country.  The  fierce  independent  spirit  of  the  Georgians 
that  could  not  brook  a  foreign  rule  has  often  exasperated  well- 

1  Tavernier  (i),  p.  174. 
H 


9$  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

nigh  to  madness  the  fury  of  their  Muhammadan  neighbours, 
when  they  failed  to  impose  upon  them  either  their  civil 
authority  or  their  religion.  It  is  this  circumstance — that  a 
change  of  faith  implied  loss  of  political  independence — which 
explains  in  a  great  measure  the  fact  that  the  Georgian 
Church  inscribes  the  names  of  so  many  martyrs  in  her 
calendar,  while  the  annals  of  the  Greek  Church  during  the 
same  period  have  no  such  honoured  roll  to  show. 

It  was  not  until  after  Georgia  had  been  overrun  by  the 
devastating  armies  of  the  Mongols,  leaving  ruined  churches 
and  monasteries  and  pyramids  of  human  heads  to  mark  the 
progress  of  their  destroying  hosts,  and  consequently  the 
spiritual  wants  of  the  people  had  remained  long  unprovided 
for,  owing  to  the  decline  in  the  numbers  and  learning  of  the 
clergy — that  Christianity  began  to  lose  ground.1  Even 
among  those  who  still  remained  Christian,  some  added  to 
the  sufferings  of  the  clergy  by  plundering  the  property  of 
the  Church  and  appropriating  to  their  own  use  the  revenues 
of  churches  and  monasteries,  and  thus  hastened  the  decay  of 
the  Christian  faith.2 

In  1400  the  invasion  of  Timur  added  a  crowning  horror  to 
the  sufferings  of  Georgia,  and  though  for  a  brief  period  the 
rule  of  Alexander  I  (1414-1442)  delivered  the  country  from 
the  foreign  yoke  and  drove  out  all  the  Muhammadans — 
after  his  death  it  was  again  broken  up  into  a  number  of  petty 
princedoms,  from  which  the  Turks  and  the  Persians  wrested 
the  last  shreds  of  independence.  But  the  Muhammadans 
always  found  Georgia  to  be  a  turbulent  and  rebellious 
possession,  ever  ready  to  break  out  into  open  revolt  at  the 
slightest  opportunity.  Both  Turks  and  Persians  sought 
to  secure  the  allegiance  of  these  troublesome  subjects  by 
means  of  conversion  to  Islam.  After  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople and  the  increase  of  Turkish  power  in  Asia 
Minor,  the  inhabitants  of  Akhaltsikhe  and  other  districts 
to  the  west  of  it  became  Muhammadans.3  In  1579  two 
Georgian  princes — brothers — came  on  an  embassy  to  Con- 
stantinople  with   a   large   retinue   of   about   two   hundred 

1  Joselian,    p.    125.      All  the  Abkhazes,  Djikhethes,  Ossetes,  Kabardes 
and  Kisthethes  fell  away  from  the  Christian  faith  about  this  time. 
-  Id.  p.  127.  3  W   p    I43 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  WESTERN  ASIA       99 

persons  :  here  the  younger  brother  together  with  his  attend- 
ants became  a  Musalman,  in  the  hope  (it  was  said)  of  thereby 
supplanting  his  elder  brother.1  At  a  rather  later  date,  the. 
conquests  of  the  Turks  brought  some  of  the  districts  in  the 
very  centre  of  Georgia  into  their  power,  the  inhabitants  of 
which  embraced  the  creed  of  the  conquerors.2  From  this 
period  Samtzkhe,  the  most  western  portion  of  Georgia, 
recognised  the  suzerainty  of  Turkey  :  its  rulers  and  people 
were  allowed  to  continue  undisturbed  in  the  Christian  faith, 
but  from  1625  the  ruling  dynasty  became  Muhammadan 
and  many  of   the  chiefs  and   the  aristocracy  followed  their 

example. 

Christianity  retained  its  hold  upon  the  peasants  much 
longer,  but  when  the  clergy  of  Samtzkhe  refused  allegiance 
to  the  Katholikos  of  Karthli,  there  ceased  to  be  regular 
provision  made  for  supplying  the  spiritual  needs  of  the 
people  :  the  nobles,  even  before  their  conversion,  had  taken 
to  plundering  the  estates  of  the  Church,  and  after  becoming 
Musalmans  they  naturally  ceased  to  assist  it  with  their 
offerings,  and  the  churches  and  monasteries  falling  into 
decay  were  replaced  by  mosques.3 

The  rest  of  Georgia  had  submitted  to  Persia,  and  when 
Tavernier  visited  this  part  of  the  country,  about  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  he  found  it  divided  into  two 
kingdoms,  which  were  provinces  of  the  Persian  empire,  and 
were  governed  by  native  Georgian  princes  who  had  to  turn 
Muhammadan  before  being  advanced  to  this  dignity.4  One 
of  the  first  of  such  princes  was  the  Tsarevitch  Const antine, 
son  of  King  Alexander  II  of  Kakheth,  who  had  been  brought 
up  at  the  Persian  court  and  had  there  embraced  Islam,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.5  The  first 
Muhammadan  king  of  Karthli,  the  Tsarevitch  Rustam  (1634- 
1658),  had  also  been  brought  up  in  Persia,  and  he  and  his 
successors  to  the  end  of  the  century  were  all  Muhammadans.6 

Tavernier  describes  the  Georgians  as  being  very  ignorant 
in  matters  of  religion  and  the  clergy  as  unlettered  and 
vicious ;   some  of  the  heads  of  the  Church  actually  sold  the 

1  David  Chytneus,  p.  49.  2  Joselian,  p.  157. 

3  Brosset,  IIe  partie,  Ire  livraison,  pp.  227-35.  Description  geographique 
de  la  Georgie  par  le  Tsarevitch  Wakhoucht,  p.  79.     (St.  Petersburg,  1842.) 

4  The  Six  Voyages,  p.  123.         5  Joselian,  p.  149.         6  Id.  pp.  160-1. 


ioo  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Christian  boys  and  girls  as  slaves  to  the  Turks  and  Persians.1 
From  this  period  there  seems  to  have  been  a  widespread 
apostasy,  especially  among  the  higher  classes  and  those 
who  sought  to  win  the  favour  of  the  Persian  court.2  In 
1701  the  occupant  of  the  throne  of  Georgia,  Wakhtang  VI, 
was  a  Christian  :  for  the  first  seven  years  of  his  reign  he  was 
a  prisoner  in  Ispahan,  where  great  efforts  were  made  to 
induce  him  to  become  a  Muhammadan;  when  he  declared 
that  he  preferred  to  lose  his  throne  rather  than  purchase  it 
at  the  price  of  apostasy,  it  is  said  that  his  younger  brother, 
although  he  was  the  Patriarch  of  Georgia,  offered  to  abandon 
Christianity  and  embrace  Islam,  if  the  crown  were  bestowed 
upon  him,  but  though  invested  by  the  Persians  with  the 
royal  power,  the  Georgians  refused  to  accept  him  as  their 
ruler,  and  drove  him  out  of  the  kingdom.3 

Towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  king  of 
Georgia  placed  his  people  under  the  protection  of  the 
Russian  crown.  Hitherto  their  intense  patriotic  feeling 
had  helped  to  keep  the  Christian  faith  alive  among  them  so 
long  as  their  foreign  invaders  had  been  Musalmans,  but  now 
that  the  foreign  power  that  sought  to  rob  them  of  their 
independence  was  Christian,  this  same  feeling  operated  in 
some  of  the  districts  north  of  the  Caucasus  to  the  advantage 
of  Islam.  In  Daghistan  a  certain  Darvish  Mansur  en- 
deavoured to  unite  the  different  tribes  of  the  Caucasus  to 
oppose  the  Russians;  preaching  the  faith  of  Islam  he 
succeeded  in  converting  the  princes  and  nobles  of  Ubichistan 
and  Daghistan,  who  have  remained  faithful  to  Islam  ever 
since;  many  of  the  Circassians,  too,  were  converted  by  his 
preaching,  and  preferred  exile  to  submitting  to  the  Russian 
rule.4  But  in  1791  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  in  1800 
Georgia  was  formally  incorporated  in  the  Russian  empire. 

Darvish  Mansur  was  not  alone  in  his  efforts  to  convert 
the  Circassians.  When  the  treaty  of  Kuchak-Oainarji  in 
1774  had  recognised  the  independence  of  the  Crimea  and 

1  Tavernier  (i),  pp.    124,    126.     He  estimates  the  number  of  Muham- 
madans  at  about  twelve  thousand.     (Id.  p.  123.) 
8  Brosset,  IIC  partie,  Irc  livraison,  pp.  85,  181. 

3  Documens  originaux  sur  les  relations  diplomatiques  de  la  Georgie 
avec  la  France  vers  la  fin  du  regne  de  Louis  XIV,  recueillis  par  M.  Brosset 
jeune.      (J.  A.  2me  scrie,  tome  ix.  (1832),  pp.  197,  451.) 

4  Mackenzie,  p.  7.     Garnett,  p.  194. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   WESTERN   ASIA     101 

opened  the  Black  Sea  to  Russian  vessels,  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment became  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  a  further  movement 
of  Russian  domination  along  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Black 
Sea  and  resolved  to  make  an  attempt  to  stir  the  Circassians 
to  resistance.  A  Turkish  officer,  named  Farah  'AH,  was 
sent  in  1782  to  establish  a  military  colony  at  Anapa,  near 
the  outlet  of  the  sea  of  Azov,  and  to  enter  into  relations  with 
the  Circassian  tribes.  Farah  'All's  first  care  was  to  seek  the 
hand  of  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  Circassian  beys,  offering  rich 
presents  of  arms,  horses,  etc.,  to  her  father;  the  marriage 
was  celebrated  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  and  Farah 
'AH  encouraged  his  soldiers  to  follow  his  example,  by  promis- 
ing to  defray  the  expenses  of  their  nuptials.  The  result  was 
that  a  number  of  Circassian  women  joined  the  little  colony 
and  accepted  the  religion  of  their  husbands,  and  with  the 
zeal  of  new  converts  won  over  to  Islam  their  fathers  and 
brothers.  An  active  movement  of  proselytism  began,  and 
the  Circassians  who  came  in  contact  with  the  Turkish  colony 
appear  readily  to  have  abandoned  their  pagan  beliefs  for  the 
religion  of  the  Qur'an,  the  mollas  were  kept  busy  in  in- 
structing the  new  Muslims,  and  help  had  to  be  sought  from 
Constantinople  to  deal  with  the  increasing  number  of  con- 
versions.1 But  the  work  of  Farah  'AH  was  short-lived;  he 
died  in  1785  and  his  tomb  was  reverenced  as  that  of  a  saint, 
but  his  work  perished  with  him.  Anapa  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  Russians  in  1812,  and  when  the  resistance 
of  the  Circassians  was  finally  overcome  in  1864,  more  than 
half  a  million  Circassian  Muhammadans  migrated  into 
Turkish  territory. 

Under  Russian  law  conversions  to  any  faith  other  than 
that  of  the  Orthodox  Church  were  illegal,  and  the  further 
progress  of  Islam  was  stayed  until  the  promulgation  of  the 
edict  of  toleration  in  1905.  One  of  the  results  of  this  in 
the  Caucasus  was  a  large  accession  to  Islam  from  among  the 
Abkhazes,  who  had  long  been  nominal  converts  to  Christi- 
anity, but  now  became  Muhammadans  in  such  numbers 
that  the  Orthodox  clergy  became  alarmed  and  founded  a 
special  society  for  the  distribution  of  religious  tracts  among 
them,  in  the  hope  of  combating  Muhammadan  influences.2 

1  Barbier  de  Meynard,  p.  45  sqq.        2  R.  du  M.  M.,  VII,  p.  320  (1909). 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE   CHRISTIAN    NATIONS 

OF  AFRICA. 

Islam  was  first  introduced  into  Africa  by  the  Arab  army 
that  invaded  Egypt  under  the  command  of  'Amr  b.  al-'As 
in  a.d.  640.     Three  years  later  the  withdrawal  of  the  By- 
zantine  troops   abandoned  the  vast   Christian  population 
into  the  hands  of  the  Muslim  conquerors.     The  rapid  suc- 
cess of  the  Arab  invaders  was  largely  due  to  the  welcome 
they  received  from  the  native  Christians,  who  hated  the 
Byzantine  rule  not  only  for  its  oppressive  administration, 
but   also — and   chiefly — on   account   of    the   bitterness   of 
theological    rancour.     The     Jacobites,    who    formed     the 
majority  of  the  Christian  population,  had  been  very  roughly 
handled  by  the  Orthodox  adherents  of  the  court  and  sub- 
jected to  indignities  that  have  not  been  forgotten  by  their 
children  even  to  the  present   day.1     Some  were  tortured 
and  then  thrown  into  the  sea ;  many  followed  their  Patriarch 
into  exile  to  escape  from  the  hands  of  their  persecutors, 
while  a  large  number  disguised  their  real  opinions  under 
a  pretended  acceptance  of  the  Council  of   Chalcedon.2     To 
these  Copts,  as  the  Jacobite  Christians  of  Egypt  are  called, 
the  Muhammadan  conquest  brought  a  freedom  of   religious 
life  such  as  they  had  not  enjoyed  for  a  century.     On  payment 
of  the  tribute,  'Amr  left  them  in  undisturbed  possession  of 
their  churches  and  guaranteed  to  them  autonomy  in  all 
ecclesiastical  matters,  thus  delivering  them  from  the  con- 
tinual interference  that  had  been  so  grievous  a  burden  under 

1  Amelineau,  p.  3;  Caetani,  vol.  iv.  p.  81  sq.  Justinian  is  said  to  have 
had  200,000  Copts  put  to  death  in  the  city  of  Alexandria,  and  the  persecu- 
tions of  his  successors  drove  many  to  take  refuge  in  the  desert.  (Wansleben : 
The  Present  State  of  Egypt,  p.  11.)      (London,  1678.) 

8  Reoaudot,  p.  161.     Severus,  p.  106. 

102. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     103 

the  previous  rule ;  he  laid  his  hands  on  none  of  the  property 
of  the  churches  and  committed  no  act  of  spoliation  or  pillage.1 
In  the  early  days  of  the  Muhammadan  rule  then,  the  con- 
dition of  the  Copts  seems  to  have  been  fairly  tolerable,2 
and  there  is  no  evidence  of  their  widespread  apostasy  to 
Islam  being  due  to  persecution  or  unjust  pressure  on  the 
part  of  their  new  rulers.  Even  before  the  conquest  was 
complete,  while  the  capital,  Alexandria,  still  held  out,  many 
of  them  went  over  to  Islam,3  and  a  few  years  later  the 
example  these  had  set  was  followed  by  many  others.4  In 
the  reign  of  'Uthman  (a.d.  643-655),  the  revenue  derived 
from  Egypt  amounted  to  twelve  millions;  a  few  years 
later,  in  the  reign  of  Mu'awiyah  (661-679),  it  had  fallen  to 
five  millions  owing  to  the  enormous  number  of  conversions  : 
under  'Umar  II  (717-720)  it  fell  still  lower,  so  that  the 
governor  of  Egypt 5  proposed  that  in  future  the  converts 
should  not  be  exempted  from  the  payment  of  the  capitation- 
tax,  but  this  the  pious  caliph  refused  to  allow,  saying  that 
God  had  sent  Muhammad  to  call  men  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  truth  and  not  to  be  a  collector  of  taxes.6 

But  later  rulers  recognised  that  for  fiscal  reasons  such  a 
policy  was  ruinous  to  the  state,  and  insisted  on  the  converts 
continuing  to  pay  taxes  as  before;  there  was,  however, 
no  continuity  in  such  a  policy,  and  individual  governors 
acted  in  an  arbitrary  and  irregular  manner.7  When  Hafs  b. 
al-Walid,  who  was  governor  of  Egypt  in  a.d.  744,  promised 
that  all  those  who  became  Muslims  would  be  exempted 

1  John,  Jacobite  bishop  of  Nikiu  (second  half  of  seventh  century),  p.  584. 
Caetani,  vol.  iv.  pp.  515-16. 

2  Bell,  p.  xxxvii.  But  the  exactions  and  hardships  that,  according  to 
Maqrizi,'  the  Copts  had  to  endure  about  seventy  years  after  the  conquest 
hardly  allow  us  to  extend  this  period  so  far  as  Von  Ranke  does  :  "  Von 
Aegypten  weiss  man  durch  die  bestimmtesten  Zeugnisse,  dass  sich  die 
Einwohner  in  den  nachsten  Jahrhunderten  unter  der  arabischen  Herrschaft 
in  einem  ertraglichen  Zustand  befunden  haben."  (Weltgeschichte,  vol.  v. 
p.  153,  4th  ed.)  ,3  John  of  Nikiu,  p.  560. 

4  Id.  p.  585.  "  Or  beaucoup  des  Egyptiens,  qui  etaient  de  faux  chretiens, 
renierent  la  sainte  religion  orthodoxe  et  le  bapteme  qui  donne  la  vie,  em- 
brasserent  la  religion  des  Musulmans,  les  ennemis  de  Dieu,  et  accepterent 
la  detestable  doctrine  de  ce  monstre,  c'est-a-dire  de  Mahomet;  ils  parta- 
gorent  l'egarement  de  ces  idolatres  et  prirent  les  armes  contre  les  chretiens." 
'  5  Qurra  b.  Sharik  (governor  of  Egypt  from  709  to  714),  or  his  predecessor, 
appears  to  have  insisted  on  the  converts  continuing  to  pay  jizyah.  (Becker 
Papyri  Schott-Reinhardt,  p.  18.) 

e  Ibn  Sa'd,  Tabaqat,  vol.  v.  p.  283. 

"  Caetani.,  vol.  \v,  p.  618;  vol..  v.  pp.  384-5^ 


104  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

from  the  payment  of  jizyah,  as  many  as  24,000  Christians 
are  reported  to  have  accepted  Islam.1  A  similar  proclama- 
tion is  said  to  have  been  made  by  al-Saffah,  the  first  of  the 
'Abbasid  caliphs,  soon  after  his  accession  in  a.d.  750,  for 
"  he  wrote  to  the  whole  of  his  dominions  saying  that  every 
one  who  embraced  his  religion  and  prayed  according  to 
his  fashion,  should  be  quit  of  the  jizyah,  and  many,  both 
rich  and  poor,  denied  the  faith  of  Christ  by  reason  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  taxation  and  the  burdens  imposed  upon 
them."  2  In  fact  many  of  the  Christians  of  Egypt  seem  to 
have  abandoned  Christianity  as  lightly  and  as  rapidly  as,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  they  had  embraced  it. 
Prior  to  that  period,  a  very  small  section  of  the  population 
of  the  valley  of  the  Nile  was  Christian,  but  the  sufferings  of 
the  martyrs  in  the  persecution  of  Diocletian,  the  stories  of 
the  miracles  they  performed,  the  national  feeling  excited 
by  the  sense  of  their  opposition  to  the  dictates  of  the 
foreign  government,3  the  assurance  that  a  paradise  of 
delights  was  opened  to  the  martyr  who  died  under  the  hands 
of  his  tormentors, — all  these  things  stirred  up  an  enthusiasm 
that  resulted  in  an  incredibly  rapid  spread  of  the  Christian 
faith.  "  Instead  of  being  converted  by  preaching,  as  the 
other  countries  of  the  East  were,  Egypt  embraced  Christi- 
anity in  a  fit  of  wild  enthusiasm,  without  any  preaching,  or 
instruction  being  given,  with  hardly  any  knowledge  of  the 
new  religion  beyond  the  name  of  Jesus,  the  Messiah,  who 
bestowed  a  life  of  eternal  happiness  on  all  who  confessed 
Him."4 

In  the  seventh  century  Christianity  had  probably  very 
little  hold  on  a  great  mass  of  the  people  of  Egypt.  The 
theological  catchwords  that  their  leaders  made  use  of, 
to  stir  up  in  them  feelings  of  hatred  and  opposition  to  the 
Byzantine  government,  could  have  been  intelligible  to  a 
very  few,  and  the  rapid  spread  of  Islam  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Arab  occupation  was  probably  due  less  to  definite 
efforts  to  attract  than  to  the  inability  of  such  a  Christianity 
to  retain.     The  theological  basis  for  the  existence  of  the 

1  Severus,  pp.  172-3.  2  Id.  pp.  205-6. 

3  "  Sans  aucun  doute  il  y  eut  dans  la  multiplicite  des  martyrs  une  sorte 
de  resistance  natjonaje  cpntre  les  gouverneurs  etrangers."  (Amelineau, 
p.  58.)  4  Amelineau,  pp.  §7-8. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     105 

Jacobites  as  a  separate  sect,  the  tenets  that  they  had  so 
long  and  at  so  great  a  cost  struggled  to  maintain,  were 
embodied  in  doctrines  of  the  most  abstruse  and  metaphysical 
character,  and  many  doubtless  turned  in  utter  perplexity 
and  weariness  from  the  interminable  controversies  that 
raged  around  them,  to  a  faith  that  was  summed  up  in  the 
simple,  intelligible  truth  of  the  Unity  of  God  and  the  mission 
of  His  Prophet,  Muhammad.  Even  within  the  Coptic 
Church  itself  at  a  later  period,  we  find  evidence  of  a  move- 
ment which,  if  not  distinctly  Muslim,  was  at  least  closely 
allied  thereto,  and  in  the  absence  of  any  separate  ecclesi- 
astical organisation  in  which  it  might  find  expression, 
probably  contributed  to  the  increase  of  the  converts  to 
Islam.  In  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  there  was 
in  the  monastery  of  St.  Anthony  (near  Itfih  on  the  Nile), 
a  monk  named  Balutus,  "  learned  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  duties  of  the  monastic  life,  and 
skilled  in  the  rules  of  the  canon-law.  But  Satan  caught 
him  in  one  of  his  nets;  for  he  began  to  hold  opinions  at 
variance  with  those  taught  by  the  Three  Hundred  and 
Eighteen  (of  Nicaea) ;  and  he  corrupted  the  minds  of  many 
of  those  who  had  no  knowledge  or  instruction  in  the  Orthodox 
faith.  He  announced  with  his  impure  mouth,  in  his  wicked 
discourses,  that  Christ  our  Lord — to  Whom  be  glory — was 
like  one  of  the  prophets.  He  associated  with  the  lowest 
among  the  followers  of  his  religion,  clothed  as  he  was  in  the 
monastic  habit.  When  he  was  questioned  as  to  his  religion 
and  his  creed,  he  professed  himself  a  believer  in  the  Unity 
of  God.  His  doctrines  prevailed  during  a  period  which 
ended  in  the  year  839  of  the  Righteous  Martyrs  (a.d.  1123)  ; 
then  he  died,  and  his  memory  was  cut  off  for  ever."  1 

Further,  a  theory  of  the  Christian  life  that  found  its 
highest  expression  in  asceticism  of  the  grossest  type  2  could 
offer  little  attraction,  in  the  face  of  the  more  human  morality 
of  Islam.3     On  account  of  the  large  numbers  of  Copts  that 

1  AbuSalih,  pp.  163-4.  2  Amelineau,  pp.  53-4,  69-70. 

3  Abu  Salih  gives  an  account  of  some  monks  who  embraced  the  faith 
of  the  Prophet,  and  these  are  probably  representative  of  a  larger  number 
of  whom  the  historian  has  left  no  record,  as  lacking  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  loss  to  the  monastery  or  of  recantation  that  made  such  instances 
of  interest  to  him  (pp.  128,  142). 


106  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

from  time  to  time  have  become  Muhammadans,  they  have 
come  to  be  considered  by  the  followers  of  the  Prophet  as 
much  more  inclined  to  the  faith  of  Islam  than  any  other 
Christian  sect,  and  though  they  have  had  to  endure  the 
most  severe  oppression  and  persecution  on  many  occasions, 
yet  the  Copts  that  have  been  thus  driven  to  abandon  their 
faith  are  said  to  have  been  few  in  comparison  with  those 
who  have  changed  their  religion  voluntarily,1  and  even  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  when  Egypt  was  said  to  be  the  most 
tolerant  of  all  Muhammadan  countries,  there  were  yearly  con- 
versions of  the  Copts  to  the  Muslim  faith.2  Still,  persecution 
and  oppression  have  undoubtedly  played  a  very  large  part 
in  the  reduction  of  the  numbers  of  the  Copts,  and  the  story 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Jacobite  Church  of  Egypt, — perse- 
cuted alike  by  their  fellow  Christians  3  and  by  the  followers 
of  the  dominant  faith,  is  a  very  sad  one,  and  many  abandoned 
the  religion  of  their  fathers  in  order  to  escape  from  burden- 
some taxes  and  unendurable  indignities.  The  vast  difference 
in  this  respect  between  their  condition  and  that  of  the 
Christians  of  Syria,  Palestine  and  Spain  at  the  same  period 
finds  its  explanation  in  the  turbulent  character  of  the  Copts 
themselves.  Their  long  struggle  against  the  civil  and 
theological  despotism  of  Byzantium  seems  to  have  welded 
the  zealots  into  a  national  party  that  could  as  little  brook 
the  foreign  rule  of  the  Arabs  as,  before,  that  of  the  Greeks. 
The  rising  of  the  Copts  against  their  new  masters  in  646, 
when  they  drove  the  Arabs  for  a  time  out  of  Alexandria 
and  opened  the  gates  of  the  city  to  the  Byzantine  troops 
(who,  however,  treated  the  unfortunate  Copts  as  enemies, 

1  Lane,  pp.  546,  549. 

2  Liittke  (1),  vol.  i.  pp.  30,  35.  Dr.  Andrew  Watson  writes  :  "  No  year 
has  passed  during  my  residence  of  forty-four  years  in  the  Nile  valley 
without  my  hearing  of  several  instances  of  defection.  The  causes  are, 
chiefly,  the  hope  of  worldly  gain  of  various  kinds,  severe  and  continued 
persecution,  exposure  to  the  cruelty  and  rapacity  of  Moslem  neighbours, 
and  personal  indignities  as  well  as  political  disabilities  of  various  kinds." 
(Islam  in  Egypt :  Mohammedan  World,  p.  24.) 

3  Severus,  pp.  122,  126,  143.  One  of  the  very  first  occasions  on  which 
they  had  to  complain  of  excessive  taxation  was  when  Menas,  the  Christian 
prefect  of  Lower  Egypt,  extorted  from  the  city  of  Alexandria  32,057 
pieces  of  gold,  instead  of  22,000  which  'Amr  had  fixed  as  the  amount  to  be 
levied.  (John  of  Nikiu,  p.  585.)  Renaudot  (p.  168)  says  that  after  the 
restoration  of  the  Orthodox  hierarchy,  about  seventy  years  after  the 
Muhammadan  conquest,  the  Copts  suffered  as  much  at  its  hands  as  at  the 
hands  of  the  Muhammadans  themselves,. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     107 

not  having  yet  forgotten  the  welcome  they  had  before  given 
to  the  Muhammadan  invaders),  was  the  first  of  a  long 
series  of  risings  and  insurrections,1 — excited  frequently 
by  excessive  taxation, — which  exposed  them  to  terrible 
reprisals,  and  caused  the  lot  of  the  Jacobite  Christians  of 
Egypt  to  be  harder  to  bear  than  that  of  any  other  Christian 
sect  in  this  or  other  countries  under  Muhammadan  rule. 
But  the  history  of  these  events  belongs  rather  to  a  history  of 
Muhammadan  persecution  and  intolerance  than  to  the  scope 
of  the  present  work.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed 
that  the  condition  of  the  Copts  was  invariably  that  of  a 
persecuted  sect ;  on  the  contrary  there  were  times  when  they 
rose  to  positions  of  great  affluence  and  importance  in  the 
state.  They  filled  the  posts  of  secretaries  and  scribes  in 
the  government  offices,2  farmed  the  taxes,3  and  in  some  cases 
amassed  enormous  wealth.4  The  annals  of  their  Church 
furnish  us  with  many  instances  of  ecclesiastics  who  were 
held  in  high  favour  and  consideration  by  the  reigning  princes 
of  the  country,  under  the  rule  of  many  of  whom  the  Christians 
enjoyed  the  utmost  tranquillity.5  To  such  a  period  of 
the  peace  of  the  Church  belongs  an  incident  that  led  to  the 
absorption  of  many  Christians  into  the  body  of  the  faithful. 
During  the  reign  of  Salah  al-Din  (Saladin)  (1169-1193)  over 
Egypt,  the  condition  of  the  Christians  was  very  happy  under 
the  auspices  of  this  tolerant  ruler ;  the  taxes  that  had  been 
imposed  upon  them  were  lightened  and  several  swept  away 
altogether ;  they  crowded  into  the  public  offices  as  secretaries, 
accountants  and  registrars ;  and  for  nearly  a  century  under 
the  successors  of  Saladin,  they  enjoyed  the  same  toleration 
and  favour,  and  had  nothing  to  complain  of  except  the  cor- 
ruption and  degeneracy  of  their  own  clergy.  Simony  had 
become  terribly  rife  among  them ;  the  priesthood  was  sold 
to  ignorant  and  vicious  persons,  while  postulants  for  the 
sacred  office  who  were  unable  to  pay  the  sums  demanded 
for  ordination,  were  repulsed  with  scorn,  in  spite  of  their 

1  Maqrizi  mentions  live  other  risings  of  the  Copts  that  had  to  be  crushed 
by  force  of  arms,  within  the  first  century  of  the  Arab  domination.  (Maqrizi 
(2),  pp.  76-82.) 

2  Renaudot,  pp.  1S9,  374,  430,  540.  3  Id.  p.  603. 

1  Id.  pp.  432,  607.     Nasir-i-Khusrau  :  Safar-namah,  ed.  Schefer,  pp.  155-6. 
«  Renaudot,  pp.  212,  225,  314,  374,  540. 


108  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

being  worthy  and  fit  persons.  The  consequence  was  that 
the  spiritual  and  moral  training  of  the  people  was  utterly 
neglected  and  there  was  a  lamentable  decay  of  the  Christian 
life.1  So  corrupt  had  the  Church  become  that  when,  on 
the  death  of  John,  the  seventy-fourth  Patriarch  of  the 
Jacobites,  in  1216,  a  successor  was  to  be  elected,  the  con- 
tending parties  who  pushed  the  claims  of  rival  candidates, 
kept  up  a  fierce  and  irreconcilable  dispute  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  and  all  this  time  cared  less  for  the  grievous  scandal 
and  the  harmful  consequences  of  their  shameless  quarrels 
than  for  the  maintenance  of  their  dogged  and  obstinately 
factious  spirit.  On  more  than  one  occasion  the  reigning 
sultan  tried  to  make  peace  between  the  contending  parties, 
refused  the  enormous  bribes  of  three,  five,  and  even  ten 
thousand  gold  pieces  that  were  offered  in  order  to  induce 
him  to  secure  the  election  of  one  of  the  candidates  by  the 
pressure  of  official  influence,  and  even  offered  to  remit  the 
fee  that  it  was  customary  for  a  newly-elected  Patriarch  to 
pay,  if  only  they  would  put  aside  their  disputes  and  come 
to  some  agreement, — but  all  to  no  purpose.  Meanwhile 
many  episcopal  sees  fell  vacant  and  there  was  no  one  to  take 
the  place  of  the  bishops  and  priests  that  died  in  this  interval ; 
in  the  monastery  of  St.  Macarius  alone  there  were  only  four 
priests  left  as  compared  with  over  eighty  under  the  last 
Patriarch.2  So  utterly  neglected  were  the  Christians  of 
the  western  dioceses,  that  they  all  became  Muslims.3  To 
this  bald  statement  of  the  historian  of  the  Coptic  Church, 
we  unfortunately  have  no  information  to  add,  of  the  positive 
efforts  made  by  the  Musalmans  to  bring  these  Christians  over 
to  their  faith.  That  such  there  were,  there  can  be  very 
little  doubt,  especially  as  we  know  that  the  Christians  held 
public  disputations  and  engaged  in  written  controversies 
on  the  respective  merits  of  the  rival  creeds.4     That  these 

1  Renaudot,  p.  38S.  2  Id.  pp.  567,  571,  574-5. 

3  Wansleben,  p.  30.  Wansleben  mentions  another  instance  (under 
different  circumstances)  of  the  decay  of  the  Coptic  Church,  in  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  which  was  formerly  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Coptic  Patriarch  : 
here  they  were  so  persecuted  by  the  Orthodox  clergy,  who  enjoyed  the 
protection  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  that  the  Patriarch  could  not  induce 
priests  to  go  there,  and  consequently  all  the  Copts  on  the  island  either 
accepted  Islam  or  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  their  churches  were  all 
shut  up.     (Id.  p.  31.)  *  Renaudot,  p.  377. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     109 

conversions  were  not  due  to  persecution,  we  know  from 
direct  historical  evidence  that  during  this  vacancy  of  the 
patriarchate,  the  Christians  had  full  and  complete  freedom 
of  public  worship,  were  allowed  to  restore  their  churches  and 
even  to  build  new  ones,  were  freed  from  the  restrictions  that 
forbade  them  to  ride  on  horses  or  mules,  and  were  tried 
in  law-courts  of  their  own,  while  the  monks  were  exempted 
from  the  payment  of  tribute  and  granted  certain  privileges.1 

How  far  this  incident  is  a  typical  case  of  conversion  to 
Islam  among  the  Copts  it  is  difficult  to  say;  a  parallel 
case  of  neglect  is  mentioned  by  two  Capuchin  missionaries 
who  travelled  up  the  Nile  to  Luxor  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  where  they  found  that  the  Copts  of  Luxor  had  no 
priest,  and  some  of  them  had  not  gone  to  confession  or 
communion  for  fifty  years.2  Under  such  circumstances 
the  decay  of  their  numbers  can  readily  be  understood. 

A  similar  neglect  probably  contributed  to  the  decay  of 
the  Nubian  Church  which  recognised  the  primacy  of  the 
Jacobite  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  as  do  the  Abyssinians 
to  the  present  day.  The  Nubians  had  been  converted  to 
Christianity  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  and 
retained  their  independence  when  Egypt  was  conquered  by 
the  Arabs;  a  treaty  was  made  according  to  which  the 
Nubians  were  to  send  every  year  three  hundred  and  sixty 
slaves,  with  forty  more  for  the  governor  of  Egypt,  while 
the  Arabs  were  to  furnish  them  with  corn,  oil  and  raiment.3 
In  the  reign  of  al-Mu'tasim  (833-842),  ambassadors  were 
sent  by  the  caliph  renewing  this  treaty,  and  the  king  of 
Nubia  visited  the  capital,  where  he  was  received  with  great 
magnificence  and  dismissed  with  costly  presents.4  In  the 
twelfth  century  they  were  still  all  Christian,5  and  retained 
their  old  independence  in  spite  of  the  frequent  expeditions 
sent  against  them  from  Egypt.6  In  1275  the  nephew  of 
the  then  king  of  Nubia  obtained  from  the  sultan  of  Egypt 
a  body  of  troops  to  assist  him  in  his  revolt  against  his  uncle, 

1  Renaudot,  p.  575. 

2  Relation  du  voyage  du  Sayd  ou  de  la  Thebayde  fait  en  1668,  par  les 
PP.  Protais  et  Charles-Francois  d'Orleans,  Capuchins  Missionaries,  p.  3. 
(Thevenot,  vol.  ii.)  3  Caetani,  vol.  iv.  p.  520. 

4  Ishok,  of  Romgla,  pp.  272-3.  5  Idrisi,  p.  32. 

6  MaqrizI  (2),  tome  i.  2me  partie,  p.  131. 


no  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

whom  he  by  their  help  succeeded  in  deposing ;  in  return  for 
this  assistance  he  had  to  cede  the  two  northernmost  provinces 
of  Nubia  to  the  sultan,  and  as  the  inhabitants  elected  to 
retain  their  Christian  faith,  an  annual  tribute  of  one  dinar 
for  each  male  was  imposed  upon  them.1  But  this  Muham- 
madan  overlordship  was  temporary  only,  and  the  Nubians 
of  the  ceded  provinces  soon  reasserted  their  independence.2 

But  settlements  of  Arabs  had  been  established  in  Nubia 
for  several  centuries  earlier  and  the  Arabs  on  the  Blue  Nile 
had  so  increased  in  number  and  wealth  in  the  tenth  century 
that  they  were  able  to  ask  permission  to  build  a  mosque  in 
Soba,3  the  capital  of  the  Christian  kingdom.4  In  the  thir- 
teenth and  especially  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century  there  began  a  general  process  of  interpenetration 
through  the  migration  into  Nubia  of  Arabs,  especially  of 
the  Juhaynah  tribe,  who  intermarried  with  the  women  of 
the  land  and  gradually  succeeded  in  breaking  up  the  power 
of  the  Nubian  princes.5  In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century  Ibn  Batutah  6  tells  us  that  the  Nubians  were  still 
Christians,  though  the  king  of  their  chief  city,  Dongola,7 
had  embraced  Islam  in  the  reign  of  Nasir  (probably  Nasir 
b.  Qulaun,  one  of  the  Mamluk  sultans  of  Egypt,  who  died 
a.d.  1340) ;  the  repeated  expeditions  of  the  Muslims  so 
late  as  the  fifteenth  century  had  not  succeeded  in  pushing 
their  conquests  south  of  the  first  cataract,  near  which  was 
their  last  fortified  place,8  while  Christianity  seems  to  have 
extended  as  far  up  the  Nile  as  Sennaar. 

The  Christian  Nubian  kingdom  appears  to  have  come  to 
an    end    partly    through    internal    dissensions    and    partly 

1  Maqrizi,  pp.  128-30.  2  Burckhardt  (1),  p.  494. 

3  About  twelve  miles  above  the  modern  Khartum. 

4  Artin,  pp.  62,  144. 

6  Becker,  Geschichte  des  ostlichen  Sudan,  p.  160. 

6  Vol.  iv.  p.  396. 

7  Slatin  Pasha  records  a  tradition  current  among  the  Danagla  Arabs 
that  this  town  was  founded  by  their  ancestor,  Dangal,  who  called  it  after 
his  own  name.  (This  however  is  impossible,  inasmuch  as  Dongola  was 
in  existence  in  ancient  Egyptian  times,  and  is  mentioned  on  the  monuments. 
See  Vivien  de  Saint-Martin,  vol.  ii.  p.  85.)  According  to  their  tradition, 
this  Dangal,  though  a  slave,  rose  to  be  ruler  of  Nubia,  but  paid  tribute  to 
Bahnesa,  the  Coptic  bishop  of  the  entire  district  lying  between  the  present 
Sarras  and  Debba.     (Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Sudan,  p.  13.)      (London,  1896.) 

8  Ibn  Salim  al-Aswani,  quoted  by  Maqrizi  :  Kitab  al-Khitat,  vol.  i. 
p.  190.      (Cairo,  a.h.  1270.) 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN  AFRICA    in 

through  the  attacks  of  Arab  and  Negro  tribes  on  its  borders, 
and  finally  by  the  establishment  of  the  powerful  Funj 
empire  in  the  fifteenth  century.1 

But  it  is  probable  that  the  progress  of  Islam  in  the  country 
was  all  this  time  being  promoted  by  the   Muhammadan 
merchants  and  others  that  frequented  it.     Maqrizi  (writing 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century)  quotes  one  of  those 
missionary  anecdotes  which  occur  so  rarely  in  the  works  of 
Arabic  authors ;  it  is  told  by  Ibn  Salim  al-Aswani,  and  is 
of  interest  as  giving  us  a  living  picture  of  the  Muslim  propa- 
gandist at  work.     Though  the  convert  referred  to  is  neither 
a  Christian  nor  a  Nubian,  still  the  story  shows  that  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  conversion  to  Islam  in  Nubia  in  the 
fifteenth  century.     Ibn  Salim  says  that  he  once  met  a  man 
at  the  court  of  the  Nubian  chief  of  Muqurrah,  who  told  him 
that  he  came  from  a  city  that  lay  three  months'  journey 
from  the  Nile.     When  asked  about  his  religion,  he  replied, 
"  My  Creator  and  thy  Creator  is    God ;    the    Creator    of 
the  universe  and  of   all  men  is  One,  and  his  dwelling-place 
is  in  Heaven."     When  there  was  a  dearth  of  rain,  or  when 
pestilence  attacked  them  or  their  cattle,  his  fellow-country- 
men would  climb  up  a  high  mountain  and  there  pray  to  God, 
who  accepted  their  prayers  and  supplied  their  needs  before 
even  they  came  down  again.     When  he  acknowledged  that 
God  had  never  sent  them  a  prophet,  Ibn  Salim  recounted 
to  him  the  story  of  the  prophets    Moses  and    Jesus  and 
Muhammad,  and  how  by  the  help  of  God  they  had  been 
enabled    to    perform  many    miracles.     And    he    answered, 
"  The  truth  must  indeed  have  been  with  them,  when  they 
did   these   things;  and   if   they  performed   these   deeds,    I 
believe  in  them."  2 

Very  slowly  and  gradually  the  Nubians  seem  to  have 
drifted  from  Christianity  into  Muhammadanism.3  The 
spiritual  life  of  their  Church  had  sunk  to  the  lowest  ebb, 
and  as  no  movement  of  reform  sprang  up  in  their  midst, 
and  as  they  had  lost  touch  with  the  Christian  Churches 
beyond  their  borders,  it  was  only  natural  that  they  should 
seek  for  an  expression  of  their  spiritual  aspirations  in  the 

1  Budge,  vol.  ii.  p.  199.    Artin,  p.  144. 

2  Maqrizi :  Kitab  al-Khitat,  vol.  i.  p.  193.         3  Morie,  vol.  i.  pp.  417-18. 


ii2  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

religion  of  Islam,  whose  followers  had  so  long  borne  witness" 
to  its  living  power  among  them,  and  had  already  won  over 
some  of  their  countrymen  to  the  acceptance  of  it.  A  Portu- 
guese priest,  who  travelled  in  Abyssinia  from  1520-1527, 
has  preserved  for  us  a  picture  of  the  Nubians  in  this  state 
of  transition ;  he  says  that  they  were  neither  Christians,  Jews 
nor  Muhammadans,  but  had  come  to  be  without  faith  and 
without  laws;  but  still  "  they  lived  with  the  desire  of  being 
Christians."  Through  the  fault  of  their  clergy  they  had 
sunk  into  the  grossest  ignorance,  and  now  there  were  no 
bishops  or  priests  left  among  them;  accordingly  they  sent 
an  embassy  of  six  men  to  the  king  of  Abyssinia,  praying 
him  to  send  priests  and  monks  to  instruct  them,  but  this  the 
king  refused  to  do  without  the  permission  of  the  Patriarch  of 
Alexandria,  and  as  this  could  not  be  obtained,  the  unfortunate 
ambassadors  returned  unsuccessful  to  their  own  country.1 
The  same  writer  was  informed  by  a  Christian  who  had 
travelled  in  Nubia,  that  he  had  found  150  churches  there, 
in  each  of  which  were  still  to  be  seen  the  figures  of  the  cruci- 
fied Christ,  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  other  saints  painted 
on  the  walls.  In  all  the  fortresses,  also,  that  were  scattered 
throughout  the  country,  there  were  churches.2  Before  the 
close  of  the  following  century,  Christianity  had  entirely 
disappeared  from  Nubia  "  for  want  of  pastors,"  but  the 
closed  churches  were  to  be  found  still  standing  throughout 
the  whole  country.3  The  Nubians  had  yielded  to  the  powerful 
Muhammadan  influences  that  surrounded  them,  to  which 
the  proselytising  efforts  of  the  Muslims  who  had  travelled 
in  Nubia  for  centuries  past  no  doubt  contributed  a  great  deal ; 
on  the  north  were  Egypt  and  the  Arab  tribes  that  had  made 
their  way  up  the  Nile  and  extended  their  authority  along 
the  banks  of  that  river ;  4  on  the  south,  the  Muhammadan 
state    of    the    Belloos,    separating    them    from    Abyssinia. 

1  Lord  Stanley  of  Alderley  in  his  translation  of  Alvarez'  Narrative  from 
the  original  Portuguese,  gives  the  answer  of  the  king  as  follows  :  "  He  said 
to  them  that  he  had  his  Abima  from  the  country  of  the  Moors,  that  is  to 
say  from  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria;  ....  how  then  could  he  give 
priests  and  friars  since  another  gave  them  "  (p.  352).     (London,  1881.) 

2  Viaggio  nella  Ethiopia  al  Prete  Ianni  fatto  par  Don  Francesco  Alvarez 
Portughese  (1520-1527).      (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  pp.  200,  250.) 

3  Wansleben,  p.  30.  For  descriptions  of  the  ruins  that  still  remain, 
see  Budge,  vol.  ii.  p.  299  sqq.,  and  G.  S.  Nileham,  Churches  in  Lower 
Nubia.     (Philadelphia,  1910.)  *  Burckhardt  (1),  p.  133. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     113 

These  Belloos,  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
were,  in  spite  of  their  Muslim  faith,  tributaries  of  the  Christian 
king  of  Abyssinia ;  x  and — if  they  may  be  identified  with 
the  Baliyyun,  who,  together  with  their  neighbours,  the 
Bajah  (the  inhabitants  of  the  so-called  island  of  Meroe),  are 
spoken  of  by  IdrisI,  in  the  twelfth  century,  as  being  Jacobite 
Christians,2 — it  is  probable  that  they  had  only  a  few  years 
before  been  converted  to  Islam,  at  the  same  time  as  the  Bajah, 
who  had  been  incorporated  into  the  Muhammadan  empire 
of  the  Funj,  when  these  latter  extended  their  conquests  in 
1499-1530  from  the  south  up  to  the  borders  of  Nubia  and 
Abyssinia  and  founded  the  powerful  state  of  Sennaar. 
When  the  army  of  Ahmad  Gran  invaded  Abyssinia  and 
made  its  way  right  through  the  country  from  south  to  north, 
it  effected  a  junction  about  1534  with  the  army  of  the  sultan 
of  Maseggia  or  Mazaga,  a  province  under  Muhammadan 
rule  but  tributary  to  Abyssinia,  lying  between  that  country 
and  Sennaar ;  in  the  army  of  this  sultan  there  were  15,000 
Nubian  soldiers  who,  from  the  account  given  of  them,  appear 
to  have  been  Musalmans.3  Fragmentary  and  insufficient 
as  these  data  of  the  conversion  of  the  Nubians  are,  we  may 
certainly  conclude  from  all  we  know  of  the  independent 
character  of  this  people  and  the  tenacity  with  which  they 
clung  to  the  Christian  faith,  so  long  as  it  was  a  living  force 
among  them,  that  their  change  of  religion  was  a  gradual  one, 
extending  through  several  centuries. 

Let  us  now  pass  to  the  history  of  Islam  among  the  Abys- 
sinians,  who  had  received  Christianity  two  centuries  before 
the  Nubians,  and  like  them  belonged  to  the  Jacobite  Church. 

The  tide  of  Arab  emigration  does  not  seem  to  have  set 
across  the  Red  Sea,  the  western  shores  of  which  formed  part 
of  the  Abyssinian  kingdom,  until  many  centuries  after 
Arabia  had  accepted  the  faith  of  the  prophet.  Up  to  the 
tenth  century  only  a  few  Muhammadan  families  were  to 
be  found  residing  in  the  coast  towns  of  Abyssinia,  but  at 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  the  foundation  of  an  Arab 
dynasty  alienated  some  of  the  coast-lands  from  the  Abys- 
sinian kingdom.  In  1300  a  missionary,  named  Abu  'Abd 
Allah  Muhammad,  made  his  way  into  Abyssinia,   calling 

1  Alvarez,  p.  250.  2  IdrisI,  p.  32.  3  'Arabfaqih,  p.  323. 

I 


n4  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

on  the  people  to  embrace  Islam,  and  in  the  following  year, 
having  collected  around  him  200,000  men,  he  attacked 
the  ruler  of  Amhara  in  several  engagements.1  King  Saifa 
Ar'ad  (1342-1370)  took  energetic  measures  against  the 
Muhammadans  in  his  kingdom,  putting  to  death  or  driving 
into  exile  all  those  who  refused  to  embrace  Christianity.2 
At  the  close  of  the  same  century  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  country,  owing  to  the  civil  wars  that  distracted 
it,  made  it  possible  for  the  various  Arab  settlements 
along  the  coast  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the 
entire  seaboard  and  drive  the  Abyssinians  into  the  in- 
terior, and  the  king,  Ba'eda  Maryam  (1468-1478),  is  said  to 
have  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  reign  in  fighting  against 
the  Muhammadans  on  the  eastern  border  of  his  kingdom.3 
In  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  while  the 
powerful  Muhammadan  kingdom  of  Adal,  between  Abyssinia 
and  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  some  others 
were  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Christian  power,  there  were 
others  again  that  formed  peaceful  tributaries  of  "  Prester 
John  " ;  e.  g.  in  Massowah  there  were  Arabs  who  kept  the 
flocks  of  the  Abyssinian  seigniors,  wandering  about  in 
bands  of  thirty  or  forty  with  their  wives  and  children,  each 
band  having  its  Christian  "  captain."  4  Some  Musalmans 
are  also  mentioned  as  being  in  the  service  of  the  king  and 
being  entrusted  by  him  with  important  posts ;  5  while  some 
of  these  remained  faithful  to  Islam,  others  embraced  the 
prevailing  religion  of  the  country.  What  was  implied  in 
the  fact  of  these  Muhammadan  communities  being  tribu- 
taries of  the  king  of  Abyssinia,  it  is  difficult  to  determine. 
The  Musalmans  of  Hadya  had  along  with  other  tribute  to 
give  up  every  year  to  the  king  a  maiden  who  had  to  become 
a  Christian ;  this  custom  was  in  accordance  with  an  ancient 
treaty,  which  the  king  of  Abyssinia  has  always  made  them 
observe,  "  because  he  was  the  stronger  " ;  besides  this,  they 
were  forbidden  to  carry  arms  or  put  on  war-apparel,  and, 
if  they  rode,  their  horses  were  not  to  be  saddled;  "  these 
orders,"  they  said,  "  we  have  always  obeyed,  so  that  the 

1  Maqrizi  (2),  tome  ii.  2me  partie,  p.  183. 

2  Basset,  p.  240.  3  Id.,  p.  247. 

4  Alvarez.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  pp.  218,  242,  249.) 

5  'Arabfaqih,  pp.  83,  191. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN  AFRICA     115 

king  may  not  put  us  to  death  and  destroy  our  mosques. 
When  the  king  sends  his  people  to  fetch  the  maiden  and  the 
tribute,  we  put  her  on  a  bed,  wash  her  and  cover  her  with 
a  cloth,  and  recite  the  prayers  for  the  dead  over  her 
and  give  her  up  to  the  people  of  the  king;  and  thus  did 
our  fathers  and  our  grandfathers  before  us."  * 

These  Muhammadan  tributaries  were  chiefly  to  be  found 
in  the  low-lying  countries  that  formed  the  northern  boundary 
of  Abyssinia,  from  the  Red  Sea  westward  to  Sennaar,2  and 
on  the  south  and  the  south-east  of  the  kingdom.3  What 
influence  these  Muhammadans  had  on  the  Christian  popula- 
tions with  which  they  were  intermingled,  and  whether  they 
made  converts  to  Islam  as  in  the  present  century,  is  matter 
only  of  conjecture.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  when  the 
independent  Muhammadan  ruler  of  Adal,  Ahmad  Gran — him- 
self said  to  have  been  the  sen  of  a  Christian  priest  of  Aijjo, 
who  had  left  his  own  country  and  adopted  Islam  in  that  of 
the  Adals  4 — invaded  Abyssinia  from  1528  to  1543,  many 
Abyssinian  chiefs  with  their  followers  joined  his  victorious 
army  and  became  Musalmans,  and  though  the  Christian 
populations  of  some  districts  preferred  to  pay  jizyah,5 
others  embraced  the  religion  of  the  conqueror.6  But  the 
contemporary  Muslim  historian  himself  tells  us  that  in  some 
cases  this  conversion  was  the  result  of  fear,  and  that  suspicions 
were  entertained  of  the  genuineness  of  the  allegiance  of  the 
new  converts.7  But  such  apparently  was  not  universally 
the  case,  and  the  widespread  character  of  the  conversions 
in  several  districts  give  the  impression  of  a  popular  move- 
ment. The  Christian  chiefs  who  went  over  to  Islam  made 
use  of  their  personal  influence  in  inducing  their  troops  to 
follow  their  example.  They  were,  as  we  are  told,  in  some 
cases  very  ignorant  of  their  own  religion,8  and  thus  the  change 
of  faith  was  a  less  difficult  matter.  Particularly  instrumental 
in  conversions  of  this  kind  were  those  Muhammadan  chiefs 
who  had  previously  entered  the  service  of  the  king  of 
Abyssinia,  and  those  renegades  who  took  the  opportunity 
of  the  invasion  of  the  country  by  a  conquering  Musalman 

1  'Arabfaqih,  p.  275-6.         2  Id.  pp.  319,  324.        3  Id.  pp.  28,  129,  275. 
*  Plowden,  p.  36.  5  'Arabfaqih,  pp.  321,  335,  343. 

6  Id.  passim.  7  Id.  pp.  175,  195,  248.         8  Id.  p.  178. 


n6  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

army  to  throw  off  their  allegiance  at  once  to  Christianity 
and  the  Christian  king  and  declare  themselves  Muhammadans 
once  more.1 

One  of  these  in  1531  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Ahmad 
Graii  : — "  I  was  formerly  a  Muslim  and  the  son  of  a  Muslim, 
was  taken  prisoner  by  the  polytheists  and  made  a  Christian 
by  force ;  but  in  my  heart  I  have  always  clung  to  the  true 
faith  and  now  I  seek  the  protection  of  God  and  of  His  Prophet 
and  of  thee.  If  thou  wilt  accept  my  repentance  and  punish 
me  not  for  what  I  have  done,  I  will  return  in  penitence  to 
God ;  and  I  will  devise  means  whereby  the  troops  of  the  king, 
that  are  with  me,  may  join  thee  and  become  Muslims;  " — 
and  in  fact  the  greater  part  of  his  army  elected  to  follow 
their  general;  including  the  women  and  children  their 
numbers  are  said  to  have  amounted  to  20,000  souls.2 

But  with  the  help  of  the  Portuguese,  the  Abyssinians 
succeeded  in  shaking  off  the  yoke  of  their  Muhammadan 
conquerors  and  Ahmad  Gran  himself  was  slain  in  1543. 
Islam  had,  however,  gained  a  footing  in  the  country,  which 
the  troublous  condition  of  affairs  during  the  remainder  of 
the  sixteenth  and  the  following  century  enabled  it  to  retain, 
the  rival  Christian  Churches  being  too  busily  engaged  in 
contending  with  one  another,  to  devote  much  attention 
to  their  common  enemy.  For  the  successful  proselytising 
of  the  Jesuits  and  other  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  and 
the  active  interference  of  the  Portuguese  in  all  civil  and 
political  matters,  excited  violent  opposition  in  the  mass  of 
the  Abyssinian  Christians ; — indeed  so  bitter  was  this  feeling 
that  some  of  the  chiefs  openly  declared  that  they  would 
rather  submit  to  a  Muhammadan  ruler  than  continue  their 
alliance  with  the  Portuguese ;  3 — and  the  semi-religious, 
semi-patriotic  movement  set  on  foot  thereby,  rapidly 
assumed  such  vast  proportions  as  to  lead  (about  1632)  to 
the  expulsion  of  the  Portuguese  and  the  exclusion  of  all 
foreign  Christians  from  the  country.  The  condition  of 
Abyssinia  then  speedily  became  one  of  terrible  confusion 
and  anarchy,  of  which  some  tribes  of  the  Galla  race  took 

1  'Arabfaqlh,  pp.  34-5,  120-1,  182-3,  244.  327- 

2  'Arabfaqlh,  pp.  181-2,  186. 

3  Iobi  Ludolfi  ad  suara  Historiam  iEthiopicam  Commcntarius,  p.  474. 
Frankfurt  a.  M.,  169 1.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN    CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     117 

advantage,  to  thrust  their  way  right  into  the  very  centre  of 
the  country,  where  their  settlements  remain  to  the  present 

day. 

The  progress  achieved  by  Islam  during  this  period  may  be 
estimated  from  the  testimony  of  a  traveller  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  who  tells  us  that  in  his  time  the  adherents 
of  this  faith  were  scattered  throughout  the  whole  of  Abyssinia 
and  formed  a  third  of  the  entire  population.1     During  the 
following  century  the  faith  of  the  Prophet  seems  steadily 
to  have  increased  by  means  of  the  conversion  of  isolated  indi- 
viduals here  and  there.     The  absence  of  any  strong  central 
government  in  the  country  favoured  the  rise  of  petty  inde- 
pendent chieftains,  many  of  whom  had  strong  Muhammadan 
sympathies,  though  (in  accordance  with  a  fundamental  law 
of  the  state)  all  the  Abyssinian  princes  had  to  belong  to 
the   Christian  faith;  the   Muhammadans,   too,   aspiring  to 
the  dignity  of  the  Abyssinian  aristocracy,  abjured  the  faith 
in  which  they  had  been  born  and  pretended  conversion  to 
Christianity  in  order  to  get  themselves  enrolled  in  the  order 
of  the  nobles,  and  as  governors  of  Christian  provinces  made 
use  of  all  their  influence  towards  the  spread  of  Islam.2     One 
of  the  chief  reasons  of  the  success  of  this  faith  seems  to  have 
been  the  moral  superiority  of  the  Muslims  as  compared  with 
that   of  the   Christian   population   of  Abyssinia.     Riippell 
says  that  he  frequently  noticed  in  the  course  of  his  travels 
in  Abyssinia  that  when  a  post  had  to  be  filled  which  required 
that  a  thoroughly  honest  and  trustworthy  person  should 
be  selected,  the  choice  always  fell  upon  a  Muhammadan. 
In  comparison  with  the  Christians,  he  says  that  they  were 
more  active  and  energetic;  that  every  Muhammadan  had 
his  sons  taught  to  read  and  write,  whereas  Christian  children 
were  only  educated  when  they  were  intended  for  the  priest- 
hood.3    This   moral  superiority   of  the   Muhammadans   of 

1  Histoire  de  la  Haute  Ethiopie,  par  le  R.  P.  Manoel  d'Almeida,  p.  7. 
(Thevenot,  vol.  ii.) 

2  Massaja,  vol.  ii.  pp.  205-6.  "  Ognuno  comprende  che  movente  di 
queste  conversioni  essendo  la  sete  di  regnare,  nel  fatto  non  si  riducevano 
che  ad  una  formalita  esterna,  restando  poi  i  nuovi  convertiti  veri  mussul- 
mani  nei  cuori  e  nei  costumi.  E  percio  accadeva  che,  elevati  alia  dignita 
di  Ras,  si  circondavano  di  mussulmani,  dan  do  ad  essi  la  maggior  parte 
degli  impieghi  e  colmandoli  di  titoli,  ricchezze  e  favori  :  e  cosi  1' Abissinia 
cristiana  invasa  e  popolata  da  questa  pessima  razza,  passo  coll'  andar  del 
tempo  sotto  il  giogo  dell'  islamismo."      (Id,  p,  206.) 

3  Riippell,  vol.  i.  pp.  328,  366. 


nS  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

Abyssinia  over  the  Christian  population  goes  far  to  explain 
the  continuous  though  slow  progress  made  by  Islam  during 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries;  the  degradation 
and  apathy  of  the  Abyssinian  clergy  and  the  interminable 
feuds  of  the  Abyssinian  chiefs,  have  left  Muhammadan 
influences  free  to  work  undisturbed.  Mr.  Plowden,  who 
was  English  consul  in  Abyssinia  from  1844  to  i860,  speaking 
of  the  Habab,  three  Tigre  tribes  dwelling  between  160  and 
170  30'  lat.,  to  the  north-west  of  Massowah,  says  that 
they  have  become  Muhammadan  "  within  the  last  100 
years,  and  all,  save  the  latest  generation,  bear  Christian 
names.  They  have  changed  their  faith,  through  the  con- 
stant influence  of  the  Muhammadans  with  whom  they 
trade,  and  through  the  gradual  and  now  entire  abandon- 
ment of  the  country  by  the  Abyssinian  chiefs,  too  much 
occupied  in  ceaseless  wars  with  their  neighbours/'  1  They 
have  a  tradition  that  one  of  their  chiefs  named  Jawej 
rejected  Christianity  for  Islam,  in  the  belief  that  the  latter 
faith  brought  good  luck  and  long  life;  he  then  said  to  his 
priest,  "  Break  in  pieces  the  Tabot  '  ; 2  the  priest  answered, 
"  I  dare  not  break  in  pieces  the  Tabot  of  Mary  " ;  so  Jawej 
seized  the  Tabot  with  his  own  hands  and  cut  it  in  pieces  with 
an  axe;  the  Christian  priests  then  adopted  Islam,  and  all 
their  descendants  are  shaykhs  of  the  tribe  to  the  present  day.3 
Other  sections  of  the  population  of  the  northern  districts 
of  the  country  were  similarly  converted  to  Islam  during 
the  same  period,  because  the  priests  had  abandoned  these 
districts  and  the  churches  had  been  suffered  to  fall  into 
ruins, — apparently  entirely  through  neglect,  as  the  Muham- 
madans here  are  said  to  have  been  by  no  means  fanatical 
nor  to  have  borne  any  particular  enmity  to  Christianity.4 
Similar  testimony  to  the  progress  of  Islam  in  the  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  given  by  other  travellers,5 
who  found  numbers  of  Christians  to  be  continually  passing 
over  to  that  faith.  The  Muhammadans  were  especially 
favoured  by  Ras  'AH,  one  of  the  vice-regents  of  Abyssinia 
and  practically  master  of  the  country  before  the  accession 

1  Plowden,  p.  15.  2  Tabot,  the  ark  of  the  covenant 

s  Littmann,  pp.  69-70.  4  Plowden,  pp.  8-9, 

*  Bekc,  pp.  51-2.     Isenberg,  p.  36. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     119 

of  King  Theodore  in  1853.     Though  himself  a    Christian, 
he  distributed  posts  and  even  the  spoils  of  the  churches 
among  the  followers  of  Islam,  and  during  his  reign  one  half 
of  the   population   of  the   central  provinces   of  Abyssinia 
embraced  the  faith  of  the  Prophet.1     Such  deep  roots  had 
this  faith  now  struck  in  Abyssinia  that  its  followers  had 
in  their  hands  all  the  commerce  as  well  as  all  the  petty  trade 
of  the  country,  enjoyed  vast  possessions,  were  masters  of 
large  towns  and  central  markets,  and  had  a  firm  hold  upon 
the  mass  of  the  people.     Indeed,   a  Christian  missionary 
who  lived  for  thirty-five  years  in  this  country,  rated  the 
success  and  the  zeal  of  the  Muslim  propagandists  so  high 
as  to  say  that  were  another  Ahmad  Gran  to  arise  and  unfurl 
the  banner  of  the  Prophet,  the  whole   of  Abyssinia  would 
become  Muhammadan.2     Embroilments  with  the  Egyptian 
government  (with  which  Abyssinia  was  at  war  from  1875 
to  1882)  brought  about  a  revulsion  of  feeling  against  Muham- 
madanism  :  hatred  of  the  foreign  Muslim  foe  reacted  upon 
their  co-religionists  within  the  border.     In  1878,  King  John 
summoned  a  Convocation  of  the  Abyssinian  clergy,  who 
proclaimed  him  supreme  arbiter  in  matters  of  faith  and 
ordained  that  there  should  be  but  one  religion  throughout 
the  whole  kingdom.     Christians  of  all  sects  other  than  the 
Jacobite  were  given  two  years  in  which  to  become  reconciled 
to  the  national  Church ;  the  Muhammadans  were  to  submit 
within  three,  and  the  heathen  within  five,  years.     A  few 
days  later  the  king  promulgated  an  edict  that  showed  how 
little  worth  was  the  three  years'  grace  allowed  to  the  Muham- 
madans ;  for  not  only  did  he  order  them  to  build  Christian 
churches  wherever  they  were  needed  and  to  pay  tithes  to 
the  priests  resident  in  their  respective  districts,  but  also 
gave   three   months'   notice   to   all   Muhammadan   officials 
to    either   receive   baptism    or   resign    their    posts.     Such 
compulsory  conversion  (consisting  as  it  did  merely  of  the  rite 
of  baptism  and  the  payment  of  tithes)  was  naturally  of  the 
most  ineffectual  character,  and  while  outwardly  conforming, 
the  Muslims  in  secret  protested  their  loyalty  to  their  old 
faith,     Massaja  saw  some  such  go  straight  from  the  church 

1  Reclus,  vol.  x.  p.  247.     Massaja,  vol.  xi.  p.  125. 
3  Massaja,  vol,  xi.  p.  124. 


120  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

in  which  they  had  been  baptised  to  the  mosque,  in  order 
to  have  this  enforced  baptism  wiped  off  by  some  holy  man 
of  their  own  faith.1  These  mass  conversions  were  rendered 
the  more  ineffectual  by  being  confined  to  the  men,  for  as 
the  royal  edict  had  made  no  mention  of  the  women  they 
were  in  no  way  molested, — a  circumstance  that  probably 
proved  to  be  of  considerable  significance  in  the  future 
history  of  Islam  in  Abyssinia,  as  Massaja  bears  striking 
testimony  to  the  important  part  the  Muhammadan  women 
have  played  in  the  diffusion  of  their  faith  in  this  country.2 
By  1880  King  John  is  said  to  have  compelled  about  50,000 
Muhammadans  to  be  baptised,  as  well  as  20,000  members 
of  one  of  the  pagan  tribes  and  half  a  million  of  Gallas,3 
but  as  their  conversion  went  no  further  than  baptism  and 
the  payment  of  tithes,  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  the 
only  result  of  these  violent  measures  was  to  increase  the 
hatred  and  hostility  of  both  the  Muslim  and  the  heathen 
Abyssinians  towards  the  Christian  faith.4  The  king  of  the 
petty  state  of  Kafa  (which  had  almost  always  acknow- 
ledged the  supremacy  of  Abyssinia), — Sawo-Teheno, — took 
advantage  of  the  embarrassment  of  King  John,  who  was 
threatened  at  once  by  the  Italians  and  the  followers  of 
the  Mahdi,  to  assert  his  independence,  and  became  a  Musal- 
man,  in  order  to  do  so  more  effectively.  He  successfully 
resisted  all  attacks  until  1897,  when  his  state  was  recon- 
quered and  he  himself  taken  prisoner  by  the  Emperor 
Menelik,  the  former  king  of  Shoa,  who  had  established  his 
authority  over  the  whole  of  Abyssinia  after  the  death  of 
King  John  in  1889.  Christianity  was  re-established  as 
the  state  religion  throughout  Kafa  and  Christian  worship 
renewed  in  the  churches,  which  had  been  left  uninjured, 
being  either  shut  up  or  turned  into  mosques.5  But  these 
violent  measures  taken  in  the  interests  of  the  Christian 
faith  have  failed  to  arrest  the  growing  power  of  Islam 
during  the  nineteenth  century.  Whole  tribes  that  were 
once  Christian  and  still  bear  Christian  names,  such  as 
Takles   ("Plant   of    Jesus"),    Hebtes    ("Gift    of   Jesus") 

1  Massaja,  vol.  xi.  pp.  77-8.  2  Id.  pp.124,  I25- 

;  Oppel,  p.  307.     Reclus,  tome  x.  p.  247. 
4  Massaja,  vol.  xi.  pp.  79,  Si.  5  Morie,  vol.  ii.  p.  449. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     121 

and  Temaryam  ("  Gift  of  Mary  "),  have  become  Muslim. 
The  two  Mansa*  tribes  which  were  entirely  Christian  about 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  become  Muslim, 
for  the  most  part,  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century ; 
the  propagandist  efforts  of  the  Muslims  who  converted  them 
appear  to  have  been  facilitated  through  the  ignorance  of 
the  Christian  clergy.  A  similar  Muhammadanising  process 
has  been  going  on  for  some  time  among  other  tribes  also.1 

We  must  return  now  to  the  history  of  Africa  in  the  seventh 
century,  when  the  Arabs  were  pushing  their  conquests  from 
East  to  West  along  the  north  coast.  The  comparatively 
easy  conquest  of  Egypt,  where  so  many  of  the  inhabitants 
assisted  the  Arabs  in  bringing  the  Byzantine  rule  to  an 
end,  found  no  parallel  in  the  bloody  campaigns  and  the 
long-continued  resistance  that  here  barred  their  further 
progress,  and  half  a  century  elapsed  before  the  Arabs 
succeeded  in  making  themselves  complete  masters  of  the 
north  coast  from  Egypt  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  It  was  not 
till  698  that  the  fall  of  Carthage  brought  the  Roman  rule 
in  Africa  to  an  end  for  ever,  and  the  subjugation  of  the 
Berbers  made  the  Arabs  supreme  in  the  country. 

The  details  of  these  campaigns  it  is  no  part  of  our  purpose 
to  consider,  but  rather  to  attempt  to  discover  in  what  way 
Islam  was  spread  among  the  Christian  population.  Un- 
fortunately the  materials  available  for  such  a  purpose  are 
lamentably  sparse  and  insufficient.  What  became  of  that 
great  African  Church  that  had  given  such  saints  and  theo- 
logians to  Christendom  ?  The  Church  of  Tertullian,  St. 
Cyprian  and  St.  Augustine,  which  had  emerged  victorious 
out  of  so  many  persecutions,  and  had  so  stoutly  championed 
the  cause  of  Christian  orthodoxy,  seems  to  have  faded  away 
like  a  mist. 

In  the  absence  of  definite  information,  it  has  been  usual 
to  ascribe  the  disappearance  of  the  Christian  population  to 
fanatical  persecutions  and  forced  conversions  on  the  part 
of  the  Muslim  conquerors.  But  there  are  many  considera- 
tions that  militate  against  such  a  rough  and  ready  settle- 
ment of  this  question.     First  of  all,  there  is  the  absence 

1  Littmann,  pp.  68-70.  K.  Cederquist  :  Islam  and  Christianity  in 
Abyssinia,  p.  154  (The  Moslem  World,  vol.  ii.). 


122  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

of  definite  evidence  in  support  of  such  an  assertion. 
Massacres,  devastation  and  all  the  other  accompaniments 
of  a  bloody  and  long-protracted  war,  there  were  in  horrible 
abundance,  but  of  actual  religious  persecution  we  have 
little  mention,  and  the  survival  of  the  native  Christian  Church 
for  more  than  eight  centuries  after  the  Arab  conquest  is  a 
testimony  to  the  toleration  that  alone  could  have  rendered 
such  a  survival  possible. 

The  causes  that  brought  about  the  decay  of  Christianity 
in  North  Africa  must  be  sought  for  elsewhere  than  in  the 
bigotry  of  Muhammadan  rulers.  But  before  attempting 
to  enumerate  these,  it  will  be  well  to  realise  how  very  small 
must  have  been  the  number  of  the  Christian  population 
at  the  end  of  the  seventh  century — a  circumstance  that 
renders  its  continued  existence  under  Muhammadan  rule 
still  more  significant  of  the  absence  of  forced  conversion, 
and  leaves  such  a  hypothesis  much  less  plausibility  than 
would  have  been  the  case  had  the  Arabs  found  a  large  and 
flourishing  Christian  Church  there  when  they  commenced 
their  conquest  of  northern  Africa. 

The  Roman  provinces  of  Africa,  to  which  the  Christian 
population  was  confined,  never  extended  far  southwards ; 
the  Sahara  forms  a  barrier  in  this  direction,  so  that  the 
breadth  of  the  coast  seldom  exceeds  80  or  100  miles.1 
Though  there  were  as  many  as  500  bishoprics  just  before 
the  Vandal  conquest,  this  number  can  serve  as  no  criterion 
of  the  number  of  the  faithful,  owing  to  the  practice  observed 
in  the  African  Church  of  appointing  bishops  to  the  most 
inconsiderable  towns  and  very  frequently  to  the  most  obscure 
villages,2  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  Christianity  ever  spread 
far  inland  among  the  Berber  tribes.3  When  the  power  of 
the  Roman  Empire  declined  in  the  fifth  century,  different 
tribes  of  this  great  race,  known  to  the  Romans  under  the 
names  of  Moors,  Numidians,  Libyans,  etc.,  swarmed  up 
from  the  south  to  ravage  and  destroy  the  wealthy  cities 
of  the  coast.  These  invaders  were  certainly  heathen.  The 
Libyans,  whose  devastations  are  so  pathetically  bewailed 

1  Gibbon,  vol.  i.  p.  161.  2  Id.  vol.  ii.  p.  212. 

3  C.  O.  Castiglioni  :    Recherches  sur  les  Berberes  a'-lantiques,  pp.  96-7. 
(Milan,  1826.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     123 

by  Synesius  of  Cyrene,  pillaged  and  burnt  the  churches 
and  carried  off  the  sacred  vessels  for  their  own  idolatrous 
rites,1  and  this  province  of  Cyrenaica  never  recovered  from 
their  devastations,  and  Christianity  was  probably  almost 
extinct  here  at  the  time  of  the  Muslim  invasion.  The 
Moorish  chieftain  in  the  district  of  Tripolis,  who  was  at 
war  with  the  Vandal  king  Thorismund  (496-524),  but 
respected  the  churches  and  clergy  of  the  orthodox,  who  had 
been  ill-treated  by  the  Vandals,  declared  his  heathenism 
when  he  said,  "  I  do  not  know  who  the  God  of  the  Christians 
is,  but  if  he  is  so  powerful  as  he  is  represented,  he  will  take 
vengeance  on  those  who  insult  him,  and  succour  those  who 
do  him  honour."  2  There  is  some  probability  that  the 
nomads  of  Mauritania  also  were  very  largely  heathen. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  extent  of  the  Christian 
Church,  it  received  a  blow  from  the  Vandal  persecutions 
from  which  it  never  recovered.  For  nearly  a  century  the 
Arian  Vandals  persecuted  the  orthodox  with  relentless 
fury;  sent  their  bishops  into  exile,  forbade  the  public 
exercise  of  their  religion  and  cruelly  tortured  those  who 
refused  to  conform  to  the  religion  of  their  conquerors.3 
When  in  534,  Belisarius  crushed  the  power  of  the  Vandals 
and  restored  North  Africa  to  the  Roman  Empire,  only 
217  bishops  met  in  the  Synod  of  Carthage4  to  resume  the 
direction  of  the  Christian  Church.  After  the  fierce  and 
long-continued  persecution  to  which  they  had  been  subjected 
the  number  of  the  faithful  must  have  been  very  much 
reduced,  and  during  the  century  that  elapsed  before  the 
coming  of  the  Muhammadans,  the  inroads  of  the  barbarian 
Moors,  who  shut  the  Romans  up  in  the  cities  and  other 
centres  of  population,  and  kept  the  mountains,  the  desert 
and  the  open  country  for  themselves,5  the  prevalent  disorder 
and  ill-government,  and  above  all  the  desolating  plagues 
that  signalised  the  latter  half  of  the  sixth  century,  all  com- 
bined to  carry  on  the  work  of  destruction.  Five  millions 
of  Africans  are  said  to  have  been  consumed  by  the  wars 
and  government  of  the  Emperor  Justinian.     The  wealthier 

1  Synesii  Catastasis.     (Migne  :  Patr.  Gr.,  torn.  lxvi.  p.  1569.) 

2  Neander  (2),  p.  320.  3  Gibbon,  vol.  iv.  pp.  331-3. 

1  Id.  vol.  v.  p.  115.  5  Tijani,  p.  201.     Gibbon,  vol.  v.  p.  122. 


124  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

citizens  abandoned  a  country  whose  commerce  and  agricul- 
ture, once  so  flourishing,  had  been  irretrievably  ruined. 
"  Such  was  the  desolation  of  Africa,  that  in  many  parts  a 
stranger  might  wander  whole  days  without  meeting  the  face 
either  of  a  friend  or  an  enemy.  The  nation  of  the  Vandals 
had  disappeared;  they  once  amounted  to  an  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  warriors,  without  including  the  children, 
the  women,  or  the  slaves.  Their  numbers  were  infinitely 
surpassed  by  the  number  of  Moorish  families  extirpated 
in  a  relentless  war ;  the  same  destruction  was  retaliated  on 
the  Romans  and  their  allies,  who  perished  by  the  climate, 
their  mutual  quarrels,  and  the  rage  of  the  barbarians."  1 

In  646,  the  year  before  the  victorious  Arabs  advanced 
from  Egypt  to  the  subjugation  of  the  western  province, 
the  African  Church  that  had  championed  so  often  the  purity 
of  Christian  doctrine,  was  stirred  to  its  depths  by  the  struggle 
against  Monotheletism ;  but  when  the  bishops  of  the  four 
ecclesiastical  provinces  in  the  archbishopric  of  Carthage, 
viz.  Mauritania,  Numidia,  Byzacena  and  Africa  Proconsu- 
laris,  held  councils  to  condemn  Monotheletism,  and  wrote 
synodal  letters  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope,  there  were 
only  sixty-eight  bishops  who  assembled  at  Carthage  to 
represent  the  last-mentioned  province,  and  forty-two  for 
Byzacena.  The  numbers  from  the  other  two  dioceses 
are  not  given,  but  the  Christian  population  had  undoubtedly 
suffered  much  more  in  these  than  in  the  two  other  dioceses 
which  were  nearer  to  the  seat  of  government.2  It  is  ex- 
ceedingly unlikely  that  any  of  the  bishops  were  absent  on 
an  occasion  that  excited  so  much  feeling,  when  zeal  for 
Christian  doctrine  and  political  animosity  to  the  Byzantine 
court  both  combined  in  stimulating  this  movement,  and 
when  Africa  took  the  most  prominent  part  in  stirring  up 
the  opposition  that  led  to  the  convening  of  the  great  Lateran 
Council  of  648.  This  diminution  in  the  number  of  the 
African  bishops  certainly  points  to  a  vast  decrease  in  the 
Christian  population,  and  in  consideration  of  the  numerous 
causes  contributing  to  a  decay  of  the  population,  too  great 

1  Gibbon,  vol.  v.  p.  214. 

2  Xeander  (1),  vol.  v.  pp.  254-5.  J.  E.  T.  Wiltsch  :  Hand-book  of  the 
geography  and  statistics  of  the  Church,  vol.  i.  pp.  433-4.  (London,  1859.) 
J.  Bournichon  :  L'Invasion  musulmane  en  Afrique,  pp.  32-3.  (Tours,  1890.) 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN  AFRICA     125 

stress  even  must  not  be  laid  upon  the  number  of  these, 
because  an  episcopal  see  may  continue  to  be  filled  long 
after  the  diocese  has  sunk  into  insignificance. 

From  the  considerations  enumerated  above,  it  may  cer- 
tainly be  inferred  that  the  Christian  population  at  the  time 
of  the  Muhammadan  invasion  was  by  no  means  a  large  one. 
During  the  fifty  years  that  elapsed  before  the  Arabs  assured 
their  victory,  the  Christian  population  was  still  further 
reduced  by  the  devastations  of  this  long  conflict.  The  city 
of  Tripolis,  after  sustaining  a  siege  of  six  months,  was  sacked, 
and  of  the  inhabitants  part  were  put  to  the  sword  and  the 
rest  carried  off  captive  into  Egypt  and  Arabia.1  Another 
city,  bordering  on  the  Numidian  desert,  was  defended  by  a 
Roman  count  with  a  large  garrison  which  bravely  endured 
a  blockade  of  a  whole  year;  when  at  last  it  was  taken  by 
storm,  all  the  males  were  put  to  the  sword  and  the  women 
and  children  carried  off  captive.2  The  number  of  such 
captives  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  several  hundreds  of 
thousands.3  Many  of  the  Christians  took  refuge  in  flight,4 
some  into  Italy  and  Spain,5  and  it  would  almost  seem  that 
others  even  wandered  as  far  as  Germany,  judging  from  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  diocese  of  St.  Boniface  by  Pope 
Gregory  II.6  In  fact,  many  of  the  great  Roman  cities  were 
quite  depopulated,  and  remained  uninhabited  for  a  long 
time  or  were  even  left  to  fall  to  ruins  entirely,7  while  in  several 
cases  the  conquerors  chose  entirely  new  sites  for  their  chief 
towns.8 

As  to  the  scattered  remnants  of  the  once  flourishing 
Christian  Church  that  still  remained  in  Africa  at  the  end 

1  Leo  Africanus.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  70,  D.) 

2  "  Deusen,  una  citta  antichissima  edificata  da  Romani  dove  confina  il 
regno  di  Buggia  col  diserto  di  Numidia."     (Id.  p.  75,  F.) 

3  Pavy,  vol.  i.  p.  iv. 

4  "  Tous  ceux  qui  ne  se  convertirent  pas  a  l'islamisme,  ou  qui  (conservant 
leur  foi)  ne  voulurent  pas  s'obliger  a  payer  la  capitation,  durent  prendre 
la  fuite  devant  les  armees  musulmanes."     (Tijani,  p.  201.) 

5  Leo  Africanus.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  7.) 

6  "Afros  passim  ad  ecclesiasticos  ordines  (procedentes)  praetendentes 
nulla  ratione  suscipiat  (Bonifacius),  quia  aliqui  eorum  Manichgei,  aliqui 
rebaptizati  saepius  sunt  probati."  Epist.  iv.  (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  torn, 
lxxxix,  p.  502.) 

7  Leo  Africanus.     (Ramusio,  pp.  65,  66,  68,  69,  76.) 

8  Qayrwan  or  Cairoan,  founded  a.h.  50;  Fez,  founded  a.h.  185  ;  al-Mah- 
diyyah,  founded  a.h.  303;  Masilah,  founded  a.h.  315;  Marocco,  founded 
a.h.  424.     (Abii-1  Fida,  tome  ii.  pp.  198,  186,  200,  191,  187.) 


i26  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

of  the  seventh  century,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that 
persecution  is  responsible  for  their  final  disappearance,  in 
the  face  of  the  fact  that  traces  of  a  native  Christian  com- 
munity were  to  be  found  even  so  late  as  the  sixteenth  century. 
Idris,  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  in  Morocco  that  bore  his 
name,  is  indeed  said  to  have  compelled  by  force  Christians 
and  Jews  to  embrace  Islam  in  the  year  a.d.  789,  when  he 
had  just  begun  to  carve  out  a  kingdom  for  himself  with  the 
sword,1  but,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  this 
incident  is  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  native  Church 
of  North  Africa.2 

The  very  slowness  of  its  decay  is  a  testimony  to  the 
toleration  it  must  have  received.  About  300  years  after 
the  Muhammadan  conquest  there  were  still  nearly  forty 
bishoprics  left,3  and  when  in  1053  Pope  Leo  IX  laments 
that  only  five  bishops  could  be  found  to  represent  the  once 
flourishing  African  Church,4  the  cause  is  most  probably  to 
be  sought  for  in  the  terrible  bloodshed  and  destruction 
wrought  by  the  Arab  hordes  that  had  poured  into  the 
country  a  few  years  before  and  filled  it  with  incessant  conflict 

1  Ibn  Abi  Zar',  p.  16. 

2  A  doubtful  case  of  forced  conversion  is  attributed  to  'Abd  al-Mu  mm, 
who  conquered  Tunis  in  1159.  See  De  Mas  Latrie  (2),  pp.  77-8.  '  Deux 
auteurs  arabes,  Ibn-al-Athir,  contemporain,  mais  vivant  a  Damas  au  milieu 
de  l'exaltation  religieuse  que  provoquaient  les  victoires  de  Saladin,  l'autre 
El-Tidjani,  visitant  l'Afrique  orientale  au  quatorzieme  siecle,  ont  ecrit 
que  le  sultan,  maitre  de  Tunis,  forca  les  Chretiens  et  les  juifs  etablis  dans 
cette  ville  a  embrasser  l'islamisme,  et  que  les  refractaires  furent  impi- 
toyablement  massacres.  Nous  doutons  de  la  realite  de  toutes  ces  mesures. 
Si'  l'arret  fatal  fut  prononce  dans  l'emportement  du  triomphe  et  pour 
satisfaire  quelques  exigences  momentanees,  il  dut  etre  elude  ou  revoque, 
tant  il  etait  contraire  au  principe  de  la  libertc  religieuse  respecte  j  usque-la 
par  tous  les  princes  maugrebins.  Ce  qu'il  y  a  de  certain,  c'est  que  les 
Chretiens  et  les  juifs  ne  tarderent  pas  a  reparaitre  a  Tunis  et  qu'on  voit 
les  Chretiens  avant  la  fin  du  regne  d'Abd-el-Moumen  etablis  a  Tunis  et  y 
jouissant  comme  par  le  passe  de  la  liberte,  de  leurs  elablissements,  de  leur 
commerce  et  de  leur  religion  .  .  .  .  '  Accompagne  ainsi  par  Dieu  raeme 
dans  sa  marche,  dit  un  ancien  auteur  maugrebin,  il  traversa  victorieusement 
les  terres  du  Zab  et  de  lTfrikiah,  conquerant  le  pays  et  les  villes,  accordant 
l'aman  a  ceux  qui  le  demandaient  et  tuant  les  recalcitrants.'  Ces  derniers 
mots  confirment  notre  sentiment  sur  sa  politique  a  l'egard  des  Chretiens 
qui  accepterent  l'arret  fatal  de  la  destinee." 

3  De  Mas  Latrie  (2),  pp.  27-8. 

4  S.  Leonis  IX.  Papae  Epist.  lxxxiii.  (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  torn,  cxliii. 
p.  728.)  This  letter  deals  with  a  quarrel  for  precedence  between  the  bishops 
of  Gummi  and  Carthage,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  disordered  con- 
dition of  Africa  at  the  time  may  have  kept  the  African  bishops  ignorant 
of  the  condition  of  other  sees  besides  their  own  and  those  immediately 
adjacent,  and  that  accordingly  the  information  supplied  to  the  Pope  repre- 
sented the  number  of  the  bishops  as  being  smaller  than  it  really  was. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA     127 

and  anarchy.1  In  1076,  the  African  Church  could  not  pro- 
vide the  three  bishops  necessary  for  the  consecration  of  an 
aspirant  to  the  dignity  of  the  episcopate,  in  accordance  with 
the  demands  of  canon  law,  and  it  was  necessary  for  Pope 
Gregory  VII  to  consecrate  two  bishops  to  act  as  coadjutors 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Carthage;  but  the  numbers  of  the 
faithful  were  still  so  large  as  to  demand  the  creation  of  fresh 
bishops  to  lighten  the  burden  of  the  work,  which  was  too 
heavy  for  these  three  bishops  to  perform  unaided.2  In  the 
course  of  the  next  two  centuries,  the  Christian  Church 
declined  still  further,  and  in  1246  the  bishop  of  Morocco 
was  the  sole  spiritual  leader  of  the  remnant  of  the  native 
Church.3  Up  to  the  same  period  traces  of  the  survival  of 
Christianity  were  still  to  be  found  among  the  Kabils  of 
Algeria ;  4  these  tribes  had  received  some  slight  instruction 
in  the  tenets  of  Islam  at  an  early  period,  but  the  new  faith 
had  taken  very  little  hold  upon  them,  and  as  years  went 
by  they  lost  even  what  little  knowledge  they  had  at  first 
possessed,  so  much  so  that  they  even  forgot  the  Muslim 
formula  of  prayer.  Shut  up  in  their  mountain  fastnesses 
and  jealous  of  their  independence,  they  successfully  resisted 
the  introduction  of  the  Arab  element  into  their  midst,  and 
thus  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  their  conversion  were  very 
considerable.  Some  unsuccessful  attempts  to  start  a  mission 
among  them  had  been  made  by  the  inmates  of  a  monastery 
belonging  to  the  Qadiriyyah  order,  Saqiyah  al-hamra  ,  but 
the  honour  of  winning  an  entrance  among  them  for  the  Muslim 
faith  was  reserved  for  a  number  of  Andalusian  Moors  who 
were  driven  out  of  Spain  after  the  taking  of  Granada  in  1492. 
They  had  taken  refuge  in  this  monastery  and  were  recog- 
nised by  the  shaykh  to  be  eminently  fitted  for  the  arduous 
task  that  had  previously  so  completely  baffled  the  efforts 
of  his  disciples.  Before  dismissing  them  on  this  pious 
errand,  he  thus  addressed  them  :  "  It  is  a  duty  incumbent 

1  A.  Miiller,  vol.  ii.  pp.  628-9. 

2  S.  Gregorii  VII.  Epistolaxix.  (Liber  tertius) .  (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  torn, 
cxlviii.  p.  449.) 

3  De  Mas  Latrie,  p.  226.  A  number  of  Spanish  Christians,  whose 
ancestors  had  been  deported  to  Morocco  in  1122,  were  to  be  found  there  as 
late  as  1386,  when  they  were  allowed  to  return  to  Seville  through  the  good 
offices  of  the  then  sultan  of  Morocco.     (Whishaw,  pp.  31-4.) 

*  C.  Trumelet  :  Les  Saintes  de  l'lslam,  p.  xxxiii.     (Paris,  1881.) 


128  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

upon  us  to  bear  the  torch  of  Islam  into  these  regions  that 
have  lost  their  inheritance  in  the  blessings  of  religion;  for 
these  unhappy  Kabils  are  wholly  unprovided  with  schools, 
and  have  no  shaykh  to  teach  their  children  the  laws  of 
morality  and  the  virtues  of  Islam;  so  they  live  like  the 
brute  beasts,  without  God  or  religion.  To  do  away  with 
this  unhappy  state  of  things,  I  have  determined  to  appeal 
to  your  religious  zeal  and  enlightenment.  Let  not  these 
mountaineers  wallow  any  longer  in  their  pitiable  ignorance 
of  the  grand  truths  of  our  religion ;  go  and  breathe  upon 
the  dying  fire  of  their  faith  and  re-illumine  its  smouldering 
embers;  purge  them  of  whatever  errors  may  still  cling  to 
them  from  their  former  belief  in  Christianity;  make  them 
understand  that  in  the  religion  of  our  lord  Muhammad — 
may  God  have  compassion  upon  him — dirt  is  not,  as  in 
the  Christian  religion,  looked  upon  as  acceptable  in  the 
eyes  of  God.1  I  will  not  disguise  from  you  the  fact  that  your 
task  is  beset  with  difficulties,  but  your  irresistible  zeal  and 
the  ardour  of  your  faith  will  enable  you,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
to  overcome  all  obstacles.  Go,  my  children,  and  bring  back 
again  to  God  and  His  Prophet  these  unhappy  people  who 
are  wallowing  in  the  mire  of  ignorance  and  unbelief.  Go, 
my  children,  bearing  the  message  of  salvation,  and  may 
God  be  with  you  and  uphold  you." 

The  missionaries  started  off  in  parties  of  five  or  six  at  a 
time  in  various  directions ;  they  went  in  rags,  staff  in  hand, 
and  choosing  out  the  wildest  and  least  frequented  parts 
of  the  mountains,  established  hermitages  in  caves  and 
clefts  of  the  rocks.  Their  austerities  and  prolonged  devo- 
tions soon  excited  the  curiosity  of  the  Kabils,  who  after 
a  short  time  began  to  enter  into  friendly  relations  with 
them.  Little  by  little  the  missionaries  gained  the  influence 
they  desired  through  their  knowledge  of  medicine,  of  the 
mechanical  arts,  and  other  advantages  of  civilisation,  and 
each   hermitage   became    a    centre    of    Muslim    teaching. 

1  Compare  the  articles  published  by  a  Junta  held  at  Madrid  in  1566, 
for  the  reformation  of  the  Moriscoes;  one  of  which  runs  as  follows  :  "  That 
neither  themselves,  their  women,  nor  any  other  persons  should  be  permitted 
to  wash  or  bathe  themselves  either  at  home  or  elsewhere ;  and  that  all 
their  bathing  houses  should  be  pulled  down  and  demolished."  (J.  Morgan, 
vol.  ii.  p.  256.) 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   CHRISTIAN   AFRICA    129 

Students,  attracted  by  the  learning  of  the  new-comers, 
gathered  round  them  and  in  time  became  missionaries 
of  Islam  to  their  fellow-countrymen,  until  their  faith  spread 
throughout  all  the  country  of  the  Kabils  and  the  villages 
of  the  Algerian  Sahara.1 

The  above  incident  is  no  doubt  illustrative  of  the  manner 
in  which  Islam  was  introduced  among  such  other  sections 
of  the  independent  tribes  of  the  interior  as  had  received 
any  Christian  teaching,  but  whose  knowledge  of  this  faith 
had  dwindled  down  to  the  observance  of  a  few  superstitious 
rites ;  2  for,  cut  off  as  they  were  from  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world  and  unprovided  with  spiritual  teachers,  they  could 
have  had  little  in  the  way  of  positive  religious  belief  to 
oppose  to  the  teachings  of  the  Muslim  missionaries. 

There  is  little  more  to  add  to  these  sparse  records  of  the 
decay  of  the  North  African  Church.  A  Muhammadan 
traveller,3  who  visited  al-Jarid,  the  southern  district  of 
Tunis,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  tells  us 
that  the  Christian  churches,  although  in  ruins,  were  still 
standing  in  his  day,  not  having  been  destroyed  by  the  Arab 
conquerors,  who  had  contented  themselves  with  building 
a  mosque  in  front  of  each  of  these  churches.  Ibn  Khaldun 
(writing  towards  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century), 
speaks  of  some  villages  in  the  province  of  Qastiliyyah,4 
with  a  Christian  population  whose  ancestors  had  lived 
there  since  the  time  of  the  Arab  conquest.5  At  the  end 
of  the  following  century  there  was  still  to  be  found  in  the 
city  of  Tunis  a  small  community  of  native  Christians, 
living  together  in  one  of  the  suburbs,  quite  distinct  from 
that  in  which  the  foreign  Christian  merchants  resided ;  far 
from  being  oppressed  or  persecuted,  they  were  employed 
as  the  bodyguard  of  the  Sultan.6     These  were  doubtless 

1  C.  Trumelet  :  Les  Saints  de  ITslam,  pp.  xxviii-xxxvi. 

2  Leo  Africanus  says  that  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  all  the  moun- 
taineers of  Algeria  and  of  Buggia,  though  Muhammadans,  painted  black 
crosses  on  their  cheeks  and  palms  of  the  hand  (Ramusio,  i.  p.  61) ;  similarly 
the  Banii  Mzab  to  the  present  day  still  keep  up  some  religious  observances 
corresponding  to  excommunication  and  confession  (Oppel,  p.  299),  and  some 
nomad  tribes  of  the  Sahara  observe  the  practice  of  a  kind  of  baptism  and 
use  the  cross  as  a  decoration  for  their  stuffs  and  weapons.  (De  Mas  Latrie 
(2),  P-  8.) 

8  Tijani,  p.  203.  4  The  modern  Touzer,  in  Tunis. 

6  Ta'rikh  al-duwal  al-islamiyyah  bi'l  maghrib,  I.  p.  146.  (ed.  De  Slane. 
Alger,  1847.)  6  Leo  Africanus.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  67.) 

K 


i3o  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

the  same  persons  as  were  congratulated  on  their  persever- 
ance in  the  Christian  faith  by  Charles  V  after  the  capture 
of  Tunis  in  1535. * 

This  is  the  last  we  hear  of  the  native  Christian  Church 
in  North  Africa.  The  very  fact  of  its  so  long  survival 
would  militate  against  any  supposition  of  forced  conversion, 
even  if  we  had  not  abundant  evidence  of  the  tolerant  spirit 
of  the  Arab  rulers  of  the  various  North  African  kingdoms, 
who  employed  Christian  soldiers,2  granted  by  frequent 
treaties  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  to  Christian 
merchants  and  settlers,3  and  to  whom  Popes  4  recommended 
the  care  of  the  native  Christian  population,  while  exhorting 
the  latter  to  serve  their  Muhammadan  rulers  faithfully.5 

1  Pavy,  vol.  i.  p.  vii. 

2  De  Mas  Latrie  (2),  pp.  61-2,  266-7.    L.  del  Marmol-Caravajal:  De 
l'Afrique,  tome  ii.  p.  54.     (Paris,  1667.) 

3  De  Mas  Latrie  (2),  p.  192. 

4  e.g.  Innocent  III,  Gregory  VII,  Gregory  IX  and  Innocent  IV. 
6  De  Mas  Latrie  (2),  p.  273. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE   CHRISTIANS   OF 

SPAIN. 

In  711  the  victorious  Arabs  introduced  Islam  into  Spain  : 
in  1502  an  edict  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  forbade  the 
exercise  of  the  Muhammadan  religion  throughout  the 
kingdom.  During  the  centuries  that  elapsed  between  these 
two  dates,  Muslim  Spain  had  written  one  of  the  brightest 
pages  in  the  history  of  mediaeval  Europe.  Her  influence 
had  passed  through  Provence  into  the  other  countries  of 
Europe,  bringing  into  birth  a  new  poetry  and  a  new  culture, 
and  it  was  from  her  that  Christian  scholars  received  what 
of  Greek  philosophy  and  science  they  had  to  stimulate 
their  mental  activity  up  to  the  time  of  the  Renaissance. 
But  these  triumphs  of  the  civilised  life — art  and  poetry, 
science  and  philosophy — we  must  pass  over  here  and  fix 
our  attention  on  the  religious  condition  of  Spain  under  the 
Muslim  rule. 

When  the  Muhammadans  first  brought  their  religion  into 
Spain  they  found  Catholic  Christianity  firmly  established 
after  its  conquest  over  Arianism.  The  sixth  Council  of 
Toledo  had  enacted  that  all  kings  were  to  swear  that  they 
would  not  suffer  the  exercise  of  any  other  religion  but  the 
Catholic,  and  would  vigorously  enforce  the  law  against  all 
dissentients,  while  a  subsequent  law  forbade  any  one  under 
pain  of  confiscation  of  his  property  and  perpetual  imprison- 
ment, to  call  in  question  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church,  the  Evangelical  Institutions,  the  definitions  of  the 
Fathers,  the  decrees  of  the  Church,  and  the  Holy  Sacraments. 
The  clergy  had  gained  for  their  order  a  preponderating 
influence  in  the  affairs  of  the  state ; 1  the  bishops  and  chief 

1  Baudissin,  p.  22. 
131 


132 


THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 


ecclesiastics  sat  in  the  national  councils,  which  met  to 
settle  the  most  important  business  of  the  realm,  ratified 
the  election  of  the  king  and  claimed  the  right  to  depose 
him  if  he  refused  to  abide  by  their  decrees.  The  Christian 
clergy  took  advantage  of  their  power  to  persecute  the  Jews, 
who  formed  a  very  large  community  in  Spain;  edicts  of 
a  brutally  severe  character  were  passed  against  such  as 
refused  to  be  baptised  j1  and  they  consequently  hailed  the 
invading  Arabs  as  their  deliverers  from  such  cruel  oppres- 
sion, they  garrisoned  the  captured  cities  on  behalf  of  the 
conqueror  and  opened  the  gates  of  towns  that  were  being 
besieged.2 

The  Muhammadans  received  as  warm  a  welcome  from  the 
slaves,  whose  condition  under  the  Gothic  rule  was  a  very 
miserable  one,  and  whose  knowledge  of  Christianity  was 
too  superficial  to  have  any  weight  when  compared  with  the 
liberty  and  numerous  advantages  they  gained,  by  throwing 
in  their  lot  with  the  Muslims. 

These  down-trodden  slaves  were  the  first  converts  to 
Islam  in  Spain.  The  remnants  of  the  heathen  population 
of  which  we  find  mention  as  late  as  a.d.  693, 3  probably 
followed  their  example.  Many  of  the  Christian  nobles,  also, 
whether  from  genuine  conviction  or  from  other  motives, 
embraced  the  new  creed.4  Many  converts  were  won,  too, 
from  the  lower  and  middle  classes,  who  may  well  have 
embraced  Islam,  not  merely  outwardly,  but  from  genuine 
conviction,  turning  to  it  from  a  religion  whose  ministers 
had  left  them  ill-instructed  and  uncared  for,  and  busied 
with  worldly  ambitions  had  plundered  and  oppressed  their 
flocks.5  Having  once  become  Muslims,  these  Spanish 
converts  showed  themselves  zealous  adherents  of  their 
adopted  faith,  and  they  and  their  children  joined  themselves 
to  the  Puritan  party  of  the  rigid  Muhammadan  theologians 
as  against  the  careless  and  luxurious  life  of  the  Arab 
aristocracy.6 

At  the  time  of  the  Muhammadan  conquest  the  old  Gothic 
virtues  are  said  by  Christian  historians  to  have  declined 


1  Helfferich,  p.  68. 

3  Baudissin,  p.  7. 

6  A.  Miiller,  vol.  ii.  p.  463. 


2  Makkari,  vol.  i.  pp.  280-2. 
4  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  pp.  45-6. 
6  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  pp.  44-6. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   SPAIN  133 

and  given  place  to  effeminacy  and  corruption,  so  that  the 
Muhammadan  rule  appeared  to  them  to  be  a  punishment 
sent  from  God  on  those  who  had  gone  astray  into  the  paths 
of  vice ; *  but  such  a  statement  is  too  frequent  a  common- 
place of  the  ecclesiastical  historian  to  be  accepted  in  the 
absence  of  contemporary  evidence.2 

But  certainly  as  time  went  on,  matters  do  not  seem  to 
have  mended  themselves ;  and  when  Christian  bishops  took 
part  in  the  revels  of  the  Muhammadan  court,  when  episcopal 
sees  were  put  up  to  auction  and  persons  suspected  to  be 
atheists  appointed  as  shepherds  of  the  faithful,  and  these 
in  their  turn  bestowed  the  office  of  the  priesthood  on  low 
and  unworthy  persons,3  we  may  well  suppose  that  it  was 
not  only  in  the  province  of  Elvira  4  that  Christians  turned 
from  a  religion,  the  corrupt  lives  of  whose  ministers  had 
brought  it  into  discredit,5  and  sought  a  more  congenial 
atmosphere  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  in  the  pale  of 
Islam. 

Had  ecclesiastical  writers  cared  to  chronicle  them,  Spain 
would  doubtless  be  found  to  offer  instances  of  many  a 
man  leaving  the  Christian  Church  like  Bodo,  a  deacon  at 
the  French  court  in  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Pious,  who  in 
a.d.  838  became  a  Jew,  in  order  that  (as  he  said),  forsaking 
his  sinful  life,  he  might  "  abide  steadfast  in  the  law  of  the 
Lord."  6 

1  So  St.  Boniface  (a.d.  745,  Epist.  lxii.).  "  Sicut  aliis  gentibus  Hispaniae 
et  Provinciae  et  Burgundionum  populis  contigit,  quae  sic  a  Deo  recedentes 
fornicatae  sunt,  donee  index  omnipotens  talium  criminum  ultrices  poenas 
per  ignorantiam  legis  Dei  et  per  Saracenos  venire  et  saevire  permisit." 
(Migne:  Patr.  Lat.,  torn,  lxxxix.  p.  761.)  Eulogius  :  lib.  i.  §  30.  "In 
cuius  (i.  e.  gentis  Saracenicae)  ditione  nostro  compellente  facinore  sceptrum 
Hispaniae  translatum  est."  (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  torn.  cxv.  p.  761.)  Similarly 
Alvar  (2),  §  18.  "  Et  probare  nostro  vitio  inlatum  intentabo  flagellum. 
Nostra  haec,  fratres,  nostra  desidia  peperit  mala,  nostra  impuritas,  nostra 
levitas,  nostra  morum  obsccenitas  .  .  .  unde  tradidit  nos  Dominus  qui 
iustitiam  diligit,  et  cuius  vultus  aequitatem  decernit,  ipsi  bestiae  con- 
rodendos  "  (pp.  531-2). 

2  Dozy  (3),  tome  i.  pp.  15-20.     Whishaw,  pp.  38,  44. 

3  Samson,  pp.  377-8,  381. 

4  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  p.  210. 

6  Bishop  Egila,  who  was  sent  to  Southern  Spain  by  Pope  Hadrian  I, 
towards  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  on  a  mission  to  counteract  the 
growing  influence  of  Muslim  thought,  denounces  the  Spanish  priests  who 
lived  in  concubinage  with  married  women.     (Helfferich,  p.  83.) 

6  Alvari  Cordubensis,  Epist.  xix.  "  Ob  meritum  aeternae  retributionis 
devovi  me  sedulum  in  lege  Domini  consistere."  (Migne:  Patr.  Lat.,  torn, 
exxi.  p.  512.) 


i34  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

It  is  very  possible,  too,  that  the  lingering  remains  of  the 
old  Gothic  Arianism — of  which,  indeed,  there  had  been 
some  slight  revival  in  the  Spanish  Church  just  before  the 
Arab  conquest 1 — may  have  predisposed  men's  minds  to 
accept  the  new  faith  whose  Christology  was  in  such  close 
agreement  with  Arian  doctrine,2  and  a  later  age  may  have 
witnessed  parallels  to  that  change  of  faith  which  is  the 
earliest  recorded  instance  of  conversion  to  Islam  in  western 
Europe  and  occurred  before  the  Arab  invasion  of  Spain — 
namely  the  conversion  of  a  Greek  named  Theodisclus,  who 
succeeded  St.  Isidore  (ob.  a.d.  636)  as  Archbishop  of 
Seville;  he  was  accused  of  heresy,  for  maintaining  that 
Jesus  was  not  one  God  in  unity  with  the  Father  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  but  was  rather  Son  of  God  by  adoption;  he 
was  accordingly  condemned  by  an  ecclesiastical  synod, 
deprived  of  his  archbishopric  and  degraded  from  the  priest- 
hood. Whereupon  he  went  over  to  the  Arabs  and  embraced 
Islam  among  them.3 

Of  forced  conversion  or  anything  like  persecution  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Arab  conquest,  we  hear  nothing.  Indeed, 
it  was  probably  in  a  great  measure  their  tolerant  attitude 
towards  the  Christian  religion  that  facilitated  their  rapid 
acquisition  of  the  country.  The  only  complaint  that  the 
Christians  could  bring  against  their  new  rulers  for  treating 
them  differently  to  their  non-Christian  subjects,  was  that 
they  had  to  pay  the  usual  capitation-tax  of  forty-eight 
dirhams  for  the  rich,  twenty-four  for  the  middle  classes, 
and  twelve  for  those  who  made  their  living  by  manual 
labour  :  this,  as  being  in  lieu  of  military  service,  was  levied 
only  on  the  able-bodied  males,  for  women,  children,  monks, 
the  halt,  and  the  blind,  and  the  sick,  mendicants  and  slaves 
were  exempted  therefrom ; 4  it  must  moreover  have  appeared 

1  Helfferich,  pp.  79—80. 

'  Bedenkt  man  nun,  wie  wichtig  gerade  die  alttestamentliche  Idee  des 
Prophetenthums  in  der  Christologie  des  germanischen  Arianismus  nachklang 
und  auch  nach  der  Annahme  des  katholischen  Dogmas  in  dem  religiosen 
Bewusstsein  der  Westgothen  haften  blieb,  so  wird  man  es  sehr  erklarlich 
finden,  dass  unmittelbar  nach  dem  Einfall  der  Araber  die  verwandten 
Vorstellungen  des  Mohammedanismus  unter  den  geknechteten  Christen 
auftauchten."     (Helfferich,  p.  82.) 

3  Lucae  Diaconi  Tudensis  Chronicon  Mundi.  (Andreas  Schottus : 
Hispaniae  Illustratae,  torn.  iv.  p.  53.)     (Francofurti,  1603-8.) 

4  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  p.  41.     Whishaw,  p.  17. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   SPAIN  135 

the   less   oppressive   as   being   collected   by   the   Christian 
officials  themselves.1 

Except  in  the  case  of  offences  against  the  Muslim  religious 
law,  the  Christians  were  tried  by  their  own  judges  and  in 
accordance  with  their  own  laws.2  They  were  left  undis- 
turbed in  the  exercise  of  their  religion ; 3  the  sacrifice  of 
the  mass  was  offered,  with  the  swinging  of  censers,  the  ringing 
of  the  bell,  and  all  the  other  solemnities  of  the  Catholic 
ritual;  the  psalms  were  chanted  in  the  choir,  sermons 
preached  to  the  people,  and  the  festivals  of  the  Church 
observed  in  the  usual  manner.  They  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  condemned,  like  their  co-religionists  in  Syria 
and  Egypt,  to  wear  a  distinctive  dress  as  sign  of  their 
humiliation,  and  in  the  ninth  century  at  least,  the  Christian 
laity  wore  the  same  kind  of  costume  as  the  Arabs.4  They 
were  at  one  time  even  allowed  to  build  new  churches.5 

We  read  also  of  the  founding  6  of  several  fresh  monasteries 
in  addition  to  the  numerous  convents  both  for  monks  and 
nuns  that  flourished  undisturbed  by  the  Muhammadan  rulers. 
The  monks  could  appear  publicly  in  the  woollen  robes  of 
their  order  and  the  priest  had  no  need  to  conceal  the  mark 
of  his  sacred  office,7  nor  at  the  same  time  did  their  religious 
profession  prevent  the  Christians  from  being  entrusted  with 
high  offices  at  court,8  or  serving  in  the  Muslim  armies.9 

1  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  p.  39.  2  Baudissin,  pp.  11-13,  196. 

3  Eulogius  :  Mem.  Sanct.,  lib.  i.  §  30,  "  inter  ipsos  sine  molestia  fidei 
degimus  "  (p.  761).  Id.,  ib.,  lib.  i.  §  18,  "  Quos  nulla  praesidialis  violentia 
fidem  suam  negare  compulit,  nee  a  cultu  sanctae  piaeque  religionis  amovit  " 
(p.  751).  John  of  Gorz  (who  visited  Spain  about  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century)  §  124,  "  (Christiani),  qui  in  regno  eius  libere  divinis  suisque  rebus 
utebantur." 

A  Spanish  bishop  thus  described  the  condition  of  the  Christians  to  John 
of  Gorz.  "  Peccatis  ad  haec  devoluti  sumus,  ut  paganorum  subiaceamus 
ditioni.  Resistere  potestati  verbo  prohibemur  apostoli.  Tantum  hoc 
unum  relictum  est  solatii,  quod  in  tantae  calamitatis  malo  legibus  nos  pro- 
priis  uti  non  prohibent ;  qui  quos  diligentes  Christianitatis  viderint  observa- 
tores,  colunt  et  amplectuntur,  simul  ipsorum  convictu  delectantur.  Pro 
tempore  igitur  hoc  videmur  tenere  consilii,  ut  quia  religionis  nulla  infertur 
iactura,  cetera  eis  obsequamur,  iussisque  eorum  in  quantum  fidem  non 
impediunt  obtemperemus  "  §  122  (p.  302). 

4  Baudissin,  pp.  16-17. 

5  Eulogius,  ob.  859  (Mem.  Sanct.  lib.  in.  c  3)  speaks  of  churches  recently 
erected  (ecclesias  nuper  structas).  The  chronicle  falsely  ascribed  to 
Luitprand  records  the  erection  of  a  church  at  Cordova  in  895  (p.  11 13). 

6  Eulogius  :  Mem.  Sanct.,  lib.  hi.  c.  11  (p.  812). 

7  Baudissin,  p.  16. 

8  Id.  p.  21,  and  John  of  Gorz,  §  128  (p.  306). 

9  Whishaw,  pp.  272,  301, 


136  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

Certainly  those  Christians  who  could  reconcile  themselves 
to  the  loss  of  political  power  had  little  to  complain  of,  and 
it  is  very  noticeable  that  during  the  whole  of  the  eighth 
century  we  hear  of  only  one  attempt  at  revolt  on  their 
part,  namely  at  Beja,  and  in  this  they  appear  to  have 
followed  the  lead  of  an  Arab  chief.1     Those  who  migrated 
into  French  territory  in  order  that  they  might  live  under  a 
Christian  rule,  certainly  fared  no  better  than  the  co-religion- 
ists they  had  left  behind.     In  812  Charlemagne  interfered 
to  protect  the  exiles  who  had  followed  him  on  his  retreat 
from  Spain  from   the  exactions   of  the  imperial  officers. 
Three  years  later  Louis  the  Pious  had  to  issue  another 
edict  on  their  behalf,  in  spite  of  which  they  had  soon  again 
to  complain  against  the  nobles  who  robbed  them  of  the 
lands  that  had  been  assigned  to  them.     But  the  evil  was 
only  checked  for  a  little  time  to  break  out  afresh,  and  all 
the  edicts  passed  on  their  behalf  did  not  avail  to  make  the 
lot  of  these  unfortunate  exiles  more  tolerable,  and  in  the 
Cagots  (i.e.  canes  Gothi),  a  despised  and  ill-treated  class  of 
later  times,  we  probably  meet  again  the  Spanish  colony 
that  fled  away  from  Muslim  rule  to  throw  themselves  upon 
the  mercy  of  their  Christian  co-religionists.2 

The  toleration  of  the  Muhammadan  government  towards 
its  Christian  subjects  in  Spain  and  the  freedom  of  inter- 
course between  the  adherents  of  the  two  religions  brought 
about  a  certain  amount  of  assimilation  in  the  two  com- 
munities. Inter-marriages  became  frequent ;  3  Isidore  of 
Beja,  who  fiercely  inveighs  against  the  Muslim  conquerors, 
records  the  marriage  of  'Abd  al-'Aziz,  the  son  of  Musa,  with 
the  widow  of  King  Roderic,  without  a  word  of  blame.4 
Many  of  the  Christians  adopted  Arab  names,  and  in  outward 
observances  imitated  to  some  extent  their  Muhammadan 
neighbours,  e.g.  many  were  circumcised,5  and  in  matters 

1  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  p.  42.  2  Baudissin,  pp.  96-7. 

3  See  the  letter  of  Pope  Hadrian  I  to  the  Spanish  bishops  :  ' '  Porro  diversa 
capitula  quae  ex  illis  audivimus  partibus,  id  est,  quod  multi  dicentes  se 
catholicos  esse,  communem  vitam  gerentes  cum  Iudaeis  et  non  baptizatis 
paganis,  tarn  in  escis  quamque  in  potu  et  in  diversis  erroribus  nihil  pollui 
se  inquiunt :  et  illud  quod  inhibitum  est,  ut  nulli  liceat  iugum  ducere  cum 
infidelibus,  ipsi  enim  filias  suas  cum  alio  benedicent,  et  sic  populo  gentili 
tradentur."     (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  tome  xcviii.  p.  385.) 

4  Isidori  Pacensis  Chronicon,  §  42  (p.  1266). 

5  Alvar  :  Indie,  Lum.,  §  35  (p.  53).     John  of  Gorz,  §  123  (p.  303), 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   SPAIN  137 

of  food  and  drink  followed  the  practice  of  the  "  unbaptized 
pagans."  x 

The  very  term  Muzarabes  (i.e.  must'aribm  or  Arabicised) 
applied  to  the  Spanish  Christians  living  under  Arab  rule, 
is  significant  of  the  tendencies  that  were  at  work.     The 
study  of  Arabic  very  rapidly  began  to  displace  that  of  Latin 
throughout  the  country,2  so  that  the  language  of  Christian 
theology  came  gradually  to   be  neglected   and   forgotten. 
Even    some    of     the    higher    clergy    rendered    themselves 
ridiculous  by  their  ignorance  of  correct  Latinity.3     It  could 
hardly   be   expected   that    the   laity   would   exhibit    more 
zeal  in  such  a  matter  than  the  clergy,  and  in  854  a  Spanish 
writer  brings  the  following  complaint  against  his  Christian 
fellow-countrymen  : — "  While    we    are    investigating    their 
(i.  e.  the  Muslim)  sacred  ordinances  and  meeting  together 
to  study  the  sects  of  their  philosophers — or  rather  philo- 
braggers — not  for  the  purpose  of  refuting  their  errors,  but 
for  the  exquisite  charm  and  for  the  eloquence  and  beauty 
of  their  language — neglecting  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
we  are  but  setting  up  as  an  idol  the  number  of  the  beast. 
(Apoc.  xiii.  18.)     Where  nowadays  can  we  find  any  learned 
layman  who,  absorbed  in  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
cares  to  look  at  the  works  of  any  of  the  Latin  Fathers  ? 
Who  is  there  with  any  zeal  for  the  writings  of  the  Evangelists, 
or  the  Prophets,  or  Apostles  ?     Our  Christian  young  men, 
with  their  elegant  airs  and  fluent  speech,  are  showy  in  their 
dress  and  carriage,  and  are  famed  for  the  learning  of  the 
gentiles;   intoxicated   with   Arab   eloquence   they  greedily 
handle,  eagerly  devour  and  zealously  discuss  the  books  of 
the  Chaldeans  (i.e.  Muhammadans) ,  and  make  them  known 
by  praising  them  with  every  flourish  of  rhetoric,  knowing 
nothing  of  the  beauty  of  the  Church's  literature,  and  looking 
down  with  contempt  on  the  streams  of  the  Church  that  flow 
forth  from  Paradise ;  alas  !  the  Christians  are  so  ignorant 

1  Letter  of  Hadrian  I,  p.  385.     John  of  Gorz,  §  123  (p.  303). 

2  Some  Arabic  verses  of  a  Christian  poet  of  the  eleventh  century  are  still 
extant,  which  exhibit  considerable  skill  in  handling  the  language  and 
metre.     (Von  Schack,  II.  95.) 

3  Abbot  Samson  gives  us  specimens  of  the  bad  Latin  written  by  some 
of  the  ecclesiastics  of  his  time,  e.g.  "  Cum  contempti  essemus  simplicitas 
Christiana,"  but  his  correction  is  hardly  much  better,  "  contenti  essemus 
simplicitati  christianae  "  (pp.  404,  406). 


138  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

of  their  own  law,  the  Latins  pay  so  little  attention  to  their 
own  language,  that  in  the  whole  Christian  flock  there  is 
hardly  one  man  in  a  thousand  who  can  write  a  letter  to 
inquire  after  a  friend's  health  intelligibly,  while  you  may 
find  a  countless  rabble  of  all  kinds  of  them  who  can  learnedly 
roll  out  the  grandiloquent  periods  of  the  Chaldean  tongue. 
They  can  even  make  poems,  every  line  ending  with  the 
same  letter,  which  display  high  flights  of  beauty  and  more 
skill  in  handling  metre  than  the  gentiles  themselves  possess."1 

In  fact  the  knowledge  of  Latin  so  much  declined  in  one 
part  of  Spain  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  translate  the 
ancient  Canons  of  the  Spanish  Church  and  the  Bible  into 
Arabic  for  the  use  of  the  Christians.2 

While  the  brilliant  literature  of  the  Arabs  exercised  such  a 
fascination  and  was  so  zealously  studied,  those  who  desired 
an  education  in  Christian  literature  had  little  more  than 
the  materials  that  had  been  employed  in  the  training  of  the 
barbaric  Goths,  and  could  with  difficulty  find  teachers  to 
induct  them  even  into  this  low  level  of  culture.  As  time 
went  on  this  want  of  Christian  education  increased  more 
and  more.  In  1125  the  Muzarabes  wrote  to  King  Alfonso 
of  Aragon  :  "  We  and  our  fathers  have  up  to  this  time  been 
brought  up  among  the  gentiles,  and  having  been  baptised, 
freely  observe  the  Christian  ordinances ;  but  we  have  never 
had  it  in  our  power  to  be  fully  instructed  in  our  divine 
religion;  for,  subject  as  we  are  to  the  infidels  who  have 
long  oppressed  us,  we  have  never  ventured  to  ask  for  teachers 
from  Rome  or  France;  and  they  have  never  come  to  us 
of  their  own  accord  on  account  of  the  barbarity  of  the 
heathen  whom  we  obey."  3 

From  such  close  intercourse  with  the  Muslims  and  so 
diligent  a  study  of  their  literature — when  we  find  even  so 
bigoted  an  opponent  of  Islam  as  Alvar4  acknowledging  that 
the  Qur'an  was  composed  in  such  eloquent  and  beautiful 
language  that  even  Christians  could  not  help  reading  and 

1  Alvar  :  Indie.  Lum.,  §  35  (pp.  554-6). 

2  Von  Schack,  vol.  ii.  p.  96.  3  Orderic  Vitalis,  p.  928. 

4  Alvar  :  Ind.  Lum.,  §  29.  "  Compositionem  verborum,  et  preces  omnium 
eius  membrorum  quotidie  pro  eo  eleganti  facundia,  et  venusto  confectas 
eloquio,  nos  hodie  per  eorum  volumina  et  oculis  legimus  et  plerumque 
miramur."     (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  tome  exxi.  p.  546.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   SPAIN  139 

admiring  it — we  should  naturally  expect  to  find  signs  of  a 
religious  influence  :  and  such  indeed  is  the  case.  Elipandus, 
bishop  of  Toledo  (ob.  810),  an  exponent  of  the  heresy  of 
Adoptionism — according  to  which  the  Man  Christ  Jesus 
was  Son  of  God  by  adoption  and  not  by  nature — is  expressly 
said  to  have  arrived  at  these  heretical  views  through  his 
frequent  and  close  intercourse  with  the  Muhammadans.1 
This  new  doctrine  appears  to  have  spread  quickly  over  a 
great  part  of  Spain,  while  it  was  successfully  propagated  in 
Septimania,  which  was  under  French  protection,  by  Felix, 
bishop  of  Urgel  in  Catalonia.2  Felix  was  brought  before 
a  council,  presided  over  by  Charlemagne,  and  made  to  abjure 
his  error,  but  on  his  return  to  Spain  he  relapsed  into  his 
old  heresy,  doubtless  (as  was  suggested  by  Pope  Leo  III 
at  the  time)  owing  to  his  intercourse  with  the  pagans 
(meaning  thereby  the  Muhammadans)  who  held  similar 
views.3  When  prominent  churchmen  were  so  profoundly 
influenced  by  their  contact  with  Muhammadans,  we  may 
judge  that  the  influence  of  Islam  upon  the  Christians  of  Spain 
was  very  considerable,  indeed  in  a.d.  936  a  council  was  held 
at  Toledo  to  consider  the  best  means  of  preventing  this  inter- 
course from  contaminating  the  purity  of  the  Christian  faith.4 
It  may  readily  be  understood  how  these  influences  of 
Islamic  thought  and  practice — added  to  definite  efforts  at 
conversion  5 — would  lead  to  much  more  than  a  mere  approxi- 
mation and  would  very  speedily  swell  the  number  of  the 
converts  to  Islam  so  that  their  descendants,  the  so-called 
Muwallads — a  term  denoting  those  not  of  Arab  blood — soon 
formed  a  large  and  important  party  in  the  state,  indeed 
the  majority  of  the  population  of  the  country,6  and  as  early 

1  Enhueber,  §  26,  p.  353.  2  Helfferich,  p.  88. 

3  "  Postmodum  transgressus  legem  Dei,  fugiens  ad  paganos  consentaneos, 
periuratus  effectus  est."  Frobenii  dissertatio  de  haeresi  Elipandi  et  Felicis, 
§  xxiv.     (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  tome  ci.  p.  313.) 

4  Pseudo-Luitprandi  Chronicon,  §  341  (p.  11 15).  "  Basilius  Toletanum 
concilium  contrahit ;  quo  providetur,  ne  Christiani  detrimentum  acciperent 
convictu  Saracenorum." 

6  There  is  little  record  of  such,  but  they  seem  referred  to  in  the  following 
sentences  of  Eulogius  (Liber  Apologeticus  Martyrum,  §  20),  on  Muham- 
mad :  "  Cuius  quidem  erroris  insaniam,  praedicationis  deliramenta,  et 
impiae  novitatis  praecepta  quisquis  catholicorum  cognoscere  cupit,  evidentius 
ab  eiusdem  sectae  cultoribus  perscrutando  advertet.  Quoniam  sacrum  se 
quidpiam  tenere  et  credere  autumantes,  non  modo  privatis,  sed  apertis 
vocibus  vatis  sui  dogmata  praedicant."  (Migne  :  Patr.  Lat.,  tome  cxv. 
p.  862.)  6  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  p.  53. 


i4o  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

as  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century  we  read  of  attempts 
made  by  them  to  shake  off  the  Arab  rule,  and  on  several 
occasions  later  they  come  forward  actively  as  a  national 
party  of  Spanish  Muslims. 

We  have  little  or  no  details  of  the  history  of  the  conversion 
of   these   New-Muslims.     Instances  appeared  to  have   oc- 
curred right  up  to  the  last  days  of  Muslim  rule,  for  when 
the  army  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  captured  Malaga  in 
1487,  it  is  recorded  that  all  the  renegade  Christians  found 
in   the   city   were   tortured   to   death   with   sharp-pointed 
reeds,  and  in  the  capitulation  that  secured  the  submission 
of  Purchena  two  years  later,  an  express  promise  was  made 
that  renegades  would  not  be  forced  to  return  to  Christianity.1 
Some    few   apostatised   to   escape    the   payment    of    some 
penalty  inflicted  by  the  law-courts.2     But  the  majority  of 
the  converts  were  no  doubt  won  over  by  the  imposing 
influence  of  the  faith  of  Islam  itself,  presented  to  them  as 
it  was  with  all  the  glamour  of  a  brilliant  civilisation,  having 
a  poetry,  a  philosophy  and  an  art  well  calculated  to  attract 
the  reason  and  dazzle  the  imagination  :  while  in  the  lofty 
chivalry  of  the  Arabs  there  was  free  scope  for  the  exhibition 
of  manly  prowess  and  the  knightly  virtues — a  career  closed 
to   the   conquered   Spaniards   that   remained   true   to   the 
Christian  faith.     Again,  the  learning  and  literature  of  the 
Christians  must  have  appeared  very  poor  and  meagre  when 
compared  with  that  of  the  Muslims,  the  study  of  which 
may  well  by  itself  have  served  as  an  incentive  to  the  adop- 
tion of  their  religion.     Besides,  to  the  devout  mind  Islam  in 
Spain  could  offer  the  attractions  of  a  pious  and  zealous 
Puritan  party  with  the  orthodox   Muslim  theologians   at 
its  head,  which  at  times  had  a  preponderating  influence  in 
the  state  and  struggled  earnestly  towards  a  reformation  of 
faith  and  morals. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  ardent  religious  feeling  that 
animated  the  mass  of  the  Spanish  Muslims  and  the  provoca- 
tion that  the  Christians  gave  to  the  Muhammadan  govern- 
ment through  their  treacherous  intrigues  with  their  co- 
religionists over  the  border,  the  history  of  Spain  under 
Muhammadan    rule    is    singularly    free    from    persecution. 

1  Lea,  The  Moriscos,  pp.  17,  18.  2  Samson,  p.  379. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN   SPAIN  141 

With  the  exception  of  three  or  four  cases  of  genuine  martyr- 
dom, the  only  approach  to  anything  like  persecution  during 
the  whole  period  of  the  Arab  rule  is  to  be  found  in  the  severe 
measures   adopted   by  the   Muhammadan  government   to 
repress  the  madness  for  voluntary  martyrdom  that  broke 
out  in  Cordova  in  the  ninth  century.     At  this  time  a  fanatical 
party  came  into  existence  among  the  Christians  in  this  part 
of  Spain  (for  apparently  the  Christian  Church  in  the  rest 
of  the  country  had  no  sympathy  with  the  movement), 
which   set   itself  openly  and  unprovokedly  to  insult  the 
religion  of  the  Muslims  and  blaspheme  their  Prophet,  with 
the  deliberate  intention  of  incurring  the  penalty  of  death  by 
such  misguided  assertion  of  their  Christian  bigotry. 

This  strange  passion  for  self-immolation  displayed  itself 
mainly  among  priests,  monks  and  nuns  between  the  years 
850  and  860.     It  would  seem  that  brooding,  in  the  silence 
of  their  cloisters,  over  the  decline  of  Christian  influence  and 
the  decay  of  religious  zeal,  they  went  forth  to  win  the 
martyr's  crown — of  which  the  toleration  of  their  infidel 
rulers  was  robbing  them — by  means  of  fierce  attacks  on 
Islam  and  its  founder.     Thus,  for  example,  a  certain  monk, 
by  name  Isaac,  came  before  the  Qadi  and  pretended  that 
he  wished  to  be  instructed  in  the  faith  of  Islam ;  when  the 
Qadi  had  expounded  to  him  the  doctrines  of  the  Prophet, 
he  burst  out  with  the  words  :   "  He  hath  lied  unto  you 
(may  the  curse  of  God  consume  him  !),  who,  full  of  wicked- 
ness, hath  led  so  many  men  into  perdition,  and  doomed  them 
with  himself  to  the  pit  of  hell.     Filled  with  Satan  and  practis- 
ing Satanic  jugglery,  he  hath  given  you  a  cup  of  deadly  wine 
to  work  disease  in  you,   and  will  expiate  his  guilt  with 
everlasting  damnation.     Why  do  ye  not,  being  endowed 
with  understanding,  deliver  yourselves  from  such  dangers  ? 
Why  do  ye  not,  renouncing  the  ulcer  of  his  pestilential 
doctrines,  seek  the  eternal  salvation  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
faith  of  Christ  ?  "  1     On  another  occasion  two  Christians 
forced  their  way  into  a  mosque  and  there  reviled  the  Muham- 
madan religion,  which,  they  declared,  would  very  speedily 
bring  upon  its  followers  the  destruction  of  hell-fire.2    Though 

1  Eulogius  :  Mem.  Sanct.  Pref.,  §  2.     (Migne,  torn.  cxv.  p.  737.) 

2  Id.  c.  xiii.  (p.  794)- 


142  THE  PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  number  of  such  fanatics  was  not  considerable,1  the 
Muhammadan  government  grew  alarmed,  fearing  that  such 
contempt  for  their  authority  and  disregard  of  their  laws 
against  blasphemy,  argued  a  widespread  disaffection  and 
a  possible  general  insurrection,  for  in  fact,  in  853  Muham- 
mad I  had  to  send  an  army  against  the  Christians  at  Toledo, 
who,  incited  by  Eulogius,  the  chief  apologist  of  the  martyrs, 
had  risen  in  revolt  on  the  news  of  the  sufferings  of  their 
co-religionists.2  He  is  said  to  have  ordered  a  general 
massacre  of  the  Christians,  but  when  it  was  pointed  out 
that  no  men  of  any  intelligence  or  rank  among  the  Christians 
had  taken  part  in  such  doings3  (for  Alvar  himself  complains 
that  the  majority  of  the  Christian  priests  condemned  the 
martyrs  4),  the  king  contented  himself  with  putting  into 
force  the  existing  laws  against  blasphemy  with  the  utmost 
rigour.  The  moderate  party  in  the  Church  seconded  the 
efforts  of  the  government;  the  bishops  anathematised  the 
fanatics,  and  an  ecclesiastical  council  that  was  held  in  852 
to  discuss  the  matter  agreed  upon  methods  of  repression  5 
that  eventually  quashed  the  movement.  One  or  two 
isolated  cases  of  martyrdom  are  recorded  later — the  last 
in  983,  after  which  there  was  none  as  long  as  the  Arab  rule 
lasted  in  Spain.6 

But  under  the  Berber  dynasty  of  the  Almoravids  at  the 

1  The  number  of  the  martyrs  is  said  not  to  have  exceeded  forty.  (W.  H. 
Prescott :  History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  vol.  i.  p.  342,  n.) 
(London  1846.)  2  Dozy  (2),  tome  ii.  pp.  161-2. 

3  Eulogius:  Mem.  Sanct.  I,  hi.  c.  vii.  (p.  805).  "  Pro  eo  quod  nullus 
sapiens,  nemo  urbanus,  nullusque  procerum  Christianorum  huiusce  modi 
rem  perpetrasset,  idcirco  non  debere  universos  perimere  asserebant,  quos 
non  praeit  personahs  dux  ad  prashum." 

4  Alvar  :  Ind.  Lum.,  §  14.  "  Nonne  ipsi  qui  videbantur  columnae,  qui 
putabantur  Ecclesiae  petrae,  qui  credebantur  electi,  nullo  cogente,  nemine 
provocante,  iudicem  adierunt,  et  in  praesentia  Cynicorum,  imo  Epicureorum, 
Dei  martyres  infamaverunt  ?  Nonne  pastores  Christi,  doctores  Ecclesiae, 
episcopi,  abbates,  presbyteri,  proceres  et  magnati,  haereticos  eos  esse  publice 
clamaverunt  ?  et  publica  professione  sine  desquisitione,  absque  interroga- 
tione,  quae  nee  imminente  mortis  sententia  erant  dicenda,  spontanea 
voluntate,  et  hbero  mentis  arbitrio,  protulerunt  ?  "     (Migne  :  torn.  exxi. 

P-  529-) 

6  Alvar  :    Indie.  Lum.,  §    15.     "  Quid   obtendendum   est   de  ilhs   quos 

ecclesiastice  interdiximus,  et  a  quibus  ne  aliquando  ad  martyrii  surgerent 

palmam    iuramentum    extorsimus  ?    quibus    errores    gentihum    infringere 

vetuimus,  et  maledictum  ne  maledictionibus  impeterent  ?     Eyangelio  et 

cruce  educta  vi  iurare  improbiter  fecimus,  imo  ferahter  et  belluino  terrore 

coegimus,  minantes  inaudita  supphcia,  et  monstruosa  promittentes  trunca- 

tionum  membrorum  varia  et  horrenda  dictu  audituve  flagella  ?  "      (Migne  : 

torn.  exxi.  p.  530.)  6  Baudissin,  p.  199. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   SPAIN  143 

beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  there  was  an  outburst  of 
fanaticism  on  the  part  of  the  theological  zealots  of  Islam 
in  which  the  Christians  had  to  suffer  along  with  the  Jews 
and  the  liberal  section  of  the  Muhammadan  population — 
the  philosophers,  the  poets  and  the  men  of  letters.  But 
such  incidents  are  exceptions  to  the  generally  tolerant 
character  of  the  Muhammadan  rulers  of  Spain  towards  their 
Christian  subjects. 

One  of  the  Spanish  Muhammadans  who  was  driven  out 
of  his  native  country  in  the  last  expulsion  of  the  Moriscoes 
in  1610,  while  protesting  against  the  persecutions  of  the 
Inquisition,  makes  the  following  vindication  of  the  tolera- 
tion of  his  co-religionists  :  "  Did  our  victorious  ancestors 
ever  once  attempt  to  extirpate  Christianity  out  of  Spain, 
when  it  was  in  their  power  ?  Did  they  not  suffer  your  fore- 
fathers to  enjoy  the  free  use  of  their  rites  at  the  same  time 
that  they  wore  their  chains  ?  Is  not  the  absolute  injunction 
of  our  Prophet,  that  whatever  nation  is  conquered  by 
Musalman  steel,  should,  upon  the  payment  of  a  moderate 
annual  tribute,  be  permitted  to  persevere  in  their  own 
pristine  persuasion,  how  absurd  soever,  or  to  embrace  what 
other  belief  they  themselves  best  approved  of  ?  If  there 
may  have  been  some  examples  of  forced  conversions,  they 
are  so  rare  as  scarce  to  deserve  mentioning,  and  only 
attempted  by  men  who  had  not  the  fear  of  God,  and  the 
Prophet,  before  their  eyes,  and  who,  in  so  doing,  have 
acted  directly  and  diametrically  contrary  to  the  holy  precepts 
and  ordinances  of  Islam  which  cannot,  without  sacrilege, 
be  violated  by  any  who  would  be  held  worthy  of  the  honour- 
able epithet  of  Musulman.  .  .  .  You  can  never  produce, 
among  us,  any  bloodthirsty,  formal  tribunal,  on  account  of 
different  persuasions  in  points  of  faith,  that  anywise  ap- 
proaches your  execrable  Inquisition.  Our  arms,  it  is  true, 
are  ever  open  to  receive  all  who  are  disposed  to  embrace 
our  religion ;  but  we  are  not  allowed  by  our  sacred  Qur'an 
to  tyrannise  over  consciences.  Our  proselytes  have  all 
imaginable  encouragement,  and  have  no  sooner  professed 
God's  Unity  and  His  Apostle's  mission  but  they  become  one 
of  us,  without  reserve;  taking  to  wife  our  daughters,  and 
being  employed  in  posts  of  trust,  honour  and  profit;  we 


i44  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

contenting  ourselves  with  only  obliging  them  to  wear  our 
habit,  and  to  seem  true  believers  in  outward  appearance, 
without  ever  offering  to  examine  their  consciences,  provided 
they  do  not  openly  revile  or  profane  our  religion  :  if  they 
do  that,  we  indeed  punish  them  as  they  deserve ;  since  their 
conversion  was  voluntarily,  and  was  not  by  compulsion."  1 

This  very  spirit  of  toleration  was  made  one  of  the  main 
articles  in  an  account  of  the  "  Apostacies  and  Treasons  of  the 
Moriscoes,"  drawn  up  by  the  Archbishop  of  Valencia  in  1602 
when  recommending  their  expulsion  to  Philip  III,  as  follows  : 
"  That  they  commended  nothing  so  much  as  that  liberty  of 
conscience,  in  all  matters  of  religion,  which  the  Turks,  and 
all  other  Muhammadans,  suffer  their  subjects  to  enjoy."  2 

What  deep  roots  Islam  had  struck  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Spanish  people  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  when  the 
last  remnant  of  the  Moriscoes  was  expelled  from  Spain  in 
1610,  these  unfortunate  people  still  clung  to  the  faith  of 
their  fathers,  although  for  more  than  a  century  they  had 
been  forced  to  outwardly  conform  to  the  Christian  religion, 
and  in  spite  of  the  emigrations  that  had  taken  place  since 
the  fall  of  Granada,  nearly  500,000  are  said  to  have  been 
expelled  at  that  time.3  Whole  towns  and  villages  were 
deserted  and  the  houses  fell  into  ruins,  there  being  no  one 
to  rebuild  them.4  These  Moriscoes  were  probably  all 
descendants  of  the  original  inhabitants  of  the  country, 
with  little  or  no  admixture  of  Arab  blood ;  the  reasons  that 
may  be  adduced  in  support  of  this  statement  are  too  lengthy 
to  be  given  here;  one  point  only  in  the  evidence  may  be 
mentioned,  derived  from  a  letter  written  in  131 1,  in  which 
it  is  stated  that  of  the  200,000  Muhammadans  then  living 
in  the  city  of  Granada,  not  more  than  500  were  of  Arab 
descent,  all  the  rest  being  descendants  of  converted 
Spaniards.5  Finally,  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  even  up  to 
the  last  days  of  its  power  in  Spain,  Islam  won  converts  to  the 
faith,  for  the  historian,  when  writing  of  events  that  occurred 
in  the  year  1499,  seven  years  after  the  fall  of  Granada, 
draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  among  the  Moors  were  a  few 
Christians  who  had  lately  embraced  the  faith  of  the  Prophet.6 

1  Morgan,  vol.  ii.  pp.  297-8,  345.  2  Id.  p.  310. 

3  Lea,  The  Moriscos,  p.  259.  4  Morgan,  vol.  ii.  p.  337. 

6  Id.  p.  289.  6  Stirling-Maxwell,  vol.  i.  p.  115. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE   CHRISTIAN    NATIONS 
IN   EUROPE    UNDER   THE  TURKS. 

We  first  hear  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  thirteenth  century,  when  fleeing  before  the 
Mongols,  to  the  number  of  about  50,000,  they  came  to  the 
help  of  the  Sultan  of  Iconium,  and  in  return  for  their  services 
both  against  the  Mongols  and  the  Greeks,  had  assigned  to 
them  a  district  in  the  north-west  of  Asia  Minor.  This  was 
the  nucleus  of  the  future  Ottoman  empire,  which,  increasing 
at  first  by  the  absorption  of  the  petty  states  into  which  the 
Saljuq  Turks  had  split  up,  afterwards  crossed  over  into 
Europe,  annexing  kingdom  after  kingdom,  until  its  victori- 
ous growth  received  a  check  before  the  gates  of  Vienna  in 
1683.1 

From  the  earliest  days  of  the  extension  of  their  kingdom 
in  Asia  Minor,  the  Ottomans  exercised  authority  over 
Christian  subjects,  but  it  was  not  until  the  ancient  capital 
of  the  Eastern  empire  fell  into  their  hands  in  1453  that  the 
relations  between  the  Muslim  Government  and  the  Christian 
Church  were  definitely  established  on  a  fixed  basis.  One  of 
the  first  steps  taken  by  Muhammad  II,  after  the  capture  of 
Constantinople  and  the  re-establishment  of  order  in  that 

1  This  is  no  place  to  give  a  history  of  these  territorial  acquisitions,  which 
may  be  briefly  summed  up  thus.  In  1353  the  Ottoman  Turks  first  passed 
over  into  Europe  and  a  few  years  later  Adrianople  was  made  their  European 
capital.  Under  Bayazid  (1389-1402),  their  dominions  stretched  from  the 
iEgaean  to  the  Danube,  embracing  all  Bulgaria,  Macedonia,  Thessaly  and 
Thrace,  with  the  exception  of  Chalkidike  and  the  district  just  round  Con- 
stantinople. Murad  II  (1421-1451)  occupied  Chalkidike  and  pushed  his 
conquests  to  the  Adriatic.  Muhammad  II  (1451-1481)  by  the  overthrow 
of  Constantinople,  Albania,  Bosnia  and  Servia,  became  master  of  the  whole 
South-Eastern  peninsula,  with  the  exception  of  the  parts  of  the  coast  held 
by  Venice  and  Montenegro.  Sulayman  II  (1 520-1 566)  added  Hungary  and 
made  the  ^gaean  an  Ottoman  sea.  In  the  seventeenth  century  Crete  was 
won  and  Podolia  ceded  by  Poland. 

L  145 


146  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

city,  was  to  secure  the  allegiance  of  the  Christians,  by 
proclaiming  himself  the  protector  of  the  Greek  Church. 
Persecution  of  the  Christians  was  strictly  forbidden;  a 
decree  was  granted  to  the  newly  elected  patriarch  which 
secured  to  him  and  his  successors  and  the  bishops  under 
him,  the  enjoyment  of  the  old  privileges,  revenues  and 
exemptions  enjoyed  under  the  former  rule.  Gennadios, 
the  first  patriarch  after  the  Turkish  conquest,  received  from 
the  hands  of  the  Sultan  himself  the  pastoral  staff,  which 
was  the  sign  of  his  office,  together  with  a  purse  of  a  thousand 
golden  ducats  and  a  horse  with  gorgeous  trappings,  on  which 
he  was  privileged  to  ride  with  his  train  through  the  city.1 
But  not  only  was  the  head  of  the  Church  treated  with  all  the 
respect  he  had  been  accustomed  to  receive  from  the  Christian 
emperors,  but  further  he  was  invested  with  extensive  civil 
power.  The  patriarch's  court  sat  to  decide  all  cases  between 
Greek  and  Greek  :  it  could  impose  fines,  imprison  offenders 
in  a  prison  provided  for  its  own  special  use,  and  in  some  cases 
even  condemn  to  capital  punishment :  while  the  ministers 
and  officials  of  the  government  were  directed  to  enforce  its 
judgments.  The  complete  control  of  spiritual  and  ecclesi- 
astical matters  (in  which  the  Turkish  government,  unlike 
the  civil  power  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  never  interfered), 
was  left  entirely  in  his  hands  and  those  of  the  grand  Synod 
which  he  could  summon  whenever  he  pleased;  and  hereby 
he  could  decide  all  matters  of  faith  and  dogma  without  fear 
of  interference  on  the  part  of  the  state.  As  a  recognised 
officer  of  the  imperial  government,  he  could  do  much  for 
the  alleviation  of  the  oppressed,  by  bringing  the  acts  of 
unjust  governors  to  the  notice  of  the  Sultan.  The  Greek 
bishops  in  the  provinces  in  their  turn  were  treated  with 
great  consideration  and  were  entrusted  with  so  much 
jurisdiction  in  civil  affairs,  that  up  to  modern  times  they 
have  acted  in  their  dioceses  almost  as  if  they  were  Ottoman 
prefects  over  the  orthodox  population,  thus  taking  the  place 
of  the  old  Christian  aristocracy  which  had  been  exterminated 
by  the  conquerors,  and  we  find  that  the  higher  clergy  were 
generally  more  active  as  Turkish  agents  than  as  Greek 
priests,  and  they  always  taught  their  people  that  the  Sultan 

1  Phrantzes,  pp.  305-6. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  147 

possessed  a  divine  sanction,  as  the  protector  of  the  Orthodox 
Church.  A  charter  was  subsequently  published,  securing 
to  the  orthodox  the  use  of  such  churches  as  had  not  been 
confiscated  to  form  mosques,  and  authorising  them  to 
celebrate  their  religious  rites  publicly  according  to  their 
national  usages.1 

Consequently,  though  the  Greeks  were  numerically 
superior  to  the  Turks  in  all  the  European  provinces  of  the 
empire,  the  religious  toleration  thus  granted  them,  and  the 
protection  of  life  and  property  they  enjoyed,  soon  reconciled 
them  to  the  change  of  masters  and  led  them  to  prefer  the 
domination  of  the  Sultan  to  that  of  any  Christian  power. 
Indeed,  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  the  Ottoman  con- 
querors were  welcomed  by  the  Greeks  as  their  deliverers 
from  the  rapacious  and  tyrannous  rule  of  the  Franks  and 
the  Venetians  who  had  so  long  disputed  with  Byzantium 
for  the  possession  of  the  Peloponnesos  and  some  of  the 
adjacent  parts  of  Greece;  by  introducing  into  Greece  the 
feudal  system,  these  had  reduced  the  people  to  the  miserable 
condition  of  serfs,  and  as  aliens  in  speech,  race  and  creed, 
were  hated  by  their  subjects,2  to  whom  a  change  of  rulers, 
since  it  could  not  make  their  condition  worse,  would  offer 
a  possible  chance  of  improving  it,  and  though  their  deliverers 
were  likewise  aliens,  yet  the  infidel  Turk  was  infinitely  to 
be  preferred  to  the  heretical  Catholics.3  The  Greeks  who 
lived  under  the  immediate  government  of  the  Byzantine 
court,  were  equally  unlikely  to  be  averse  to  a  change  of 
rulers.     The  degradation   and  tyranny  that   characterised 

1  Finlay,  vol.  iii.  p.  522.  Pitzipios,  seconde  partie,  p.  75.  M.  d'Ohsson, 
vol.  iii.  p.  52-4.     Arminjon,  vol.  i.  p.  16. 

2  A  traveller  who  visited  Cyprus  in  1508  draws  the  following  picture  of 
the  tyranny  of  the  Venetians  in  their  foreign  possessions  :  "  All  the  in- 
habitants of  Cyprus  are  slaves  to  the  Venetians,  being  obliged  to  pay  to 
the  state  a  third  part  of  all  their  increase  or  income,  whether  the  product 
of  their  ground  or  corn,  wine,  oil,  or  of  their  cattle,  or  any  other  thing. 
Besides,  every  man  of  them  is  bound  to  work  for  the  state  two  days  of  the 
week  wherever  they  shall  please  to  appoint  him  :  and  if  any  shall  fail,  by 
reason  of  some  other  business  of  their  own,  or  for  indisposition  of  body, 
then  they  are  made  to  pay  a  fine  for  as  many  days  as  they  are  absent  from 
their  work  :  and  which  is  more,  there  is  yearly  some  tax  or  other  imposed 
on  them,  with  which  the  poor  common  people  are  so  flead  and  pillaged 
that  they  hardly  have  wherewithal  to  keep  soul  and  body  together."  (The 
Travels  of  Martin  Baumgarten,  p.  373.)  See  also  the  passages  quoted  by 
Hackett,  History  of  the  Orthodox  Church  of  Cyprus,  p.  183. 

3  Finlay,  vol.  iii.  p.  502. 


148  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

the  dynasty  of  the  Palaeologi  are  frightful  to  contemplate. 
"  A    corrupt    aristocracy,    a    tyrannical    and    innumerable 
clergy,  the  oppression  of  perverted  law,  the  exactions  of  a 
despicable  government,  and  still  more,  its  monopolies,  its 
fiscality,  its  armies  of  tax  and  custom  collectors,  left  the 
degraded   people   neither   rights   nor   institutions,    neither 
chance  of  amelioration  nor  hope  of  redress."  *     Lest  such 
a  judgment  appear  dictated  by  a  spirit  of  party  bias,  a 
contemporary  authority  may  be  appealed  to  in  support  of 
its  correctness.     The  Russian  annalists  who  speak  of  the 
fall  of  Constantinople  bring  a  similar  indictment  against  its 
government.     "  Without  the  fear  of  the  law  an  empire  is 
like  a  steed  without  reins.     Constantine  and  his  ancestors 
allowed  their  grandees  to  oppress  the  people ;   there  was  no 
more  justice  in  their  law  courts ;   no  more  courage  in  their 
hearts;    the  judges  amassed  treasures  from  the  tears  and 
blood  of  the  innocent;    the  Greek  soldiers  were  proud  only 
of  the  magnificence  of  their  dress ;  the  citizens  did  not  blush 
at  being  traitors;    the  soldiers  were  not  ashamed  to  fly. 
At  length  the  Lord  poured  out  His  thunder  on  these  un- 
worthy rulers,  and  raised  up  Muhammad,  whose  warriors 
delight  in  battle,   and  whose  judges  do  not  betray  their 
trust."  2     This  last  item  of  praise  3  may  sound  strange  in 
the  ears  of  a  generation  that  has  constantly  been  called  upon 
to  protest  against  Turkish  injustice;    but  it  is  clearly  and 
abundantly  borne  out  by  the  testimony  of  contemporary 
historians.     The  Byzantine  historian  who  has  handed  down 
to  us  the  story  of  the  capture  of  Constantinople  tells  us  how 
even  the  impetuous  Bayazid  was  liberal  and  generous  to 
his  Christian  subjects,  and  made  himself  extremely  popular 
among   them   by   admitting   them   freely   to   his   society.4 
Murad   II    distinguished  himself  by  his  attention  to  the 
administration  of  justice  and  by  his  reforms  of  the  abuses 

1  Urquhart,  quoted  by  Clark  :    Races  of  European  Turkey,  p.  82. 

2  Karamsin,  vol.  v.  p.  437. 

3  Martin  Crusius  writes  in  the  same  spirit  :  "  Et  mirum  est,  inter  bar- 
baros,  in  tanta  tanta?  urbis  colluvie,  nullas  caedes  audiri,  vim  iniustam  non 
ferri,  ins  cuivis  dici.  Ideo  Constantinopolin  Sultanus,  Refugium  totius 
orbis  scribit  :  quod  omnes  miseri,  ibi  tutissime  latent  :  quodque  omnibus 
(tarn  infimis  quam  summis  :  tarn  Christianis  quam  inndelibus)  iustitia 
administretur."     (Turcograicia,  p.  487.)     (Basileae,  1584.) 

*  Phrantzes,  p.  81. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  149 

prevalent  under  the  Greek  emperors,  and  punished  without 
mercy  those  of  his  officials  who  oppressed  any  of  his  subjects.1 
For  at  least  a  century  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople  a 
series  of  able  rulers  secured,  by  a  firm  and  vigorous  admini- 
stration, peace  and  order  throughout  their  dominions,  and 
an  admirable  civil  and  judicial  organisation,  if  it  did  not 
provide  an  absolutely  impartial  justice  for  Muslims  and 
Christians  alike,  yet  caused  the  Greeks  to  be  far  better  off 
than  they  had  been  before.  They  were  harassed  by  fewer 
exactions  of  forced  labour,  extraordinary  contributions  were 
rarely  levied,  and  the  taxes  they  paid  were  a  trifling  burden 
compared  with  the  endless  feudal  obligations  of  the  Franks 
and  the  countless  extortions  of  the  Byzantines.  The 
Turkish  dominions  were  certainly  better  governed  and  more 
prosperous  than  most  parts  of  Christian  Europe,  and  the 
mass  of  the  Christian  population  engaged  in  the  cultivation 
of  the  soil  enjoyed  a  larger  measure  of  private  liberty  and  of 
the  fruits  of  their  labour,  under  the  government  of  the 
Sultan  than  their  contemporaries  did  under  that  of  many 
Christian  monarchs.2  A  great  impulse,  too,  was  given  to 
the  commerical  activity  of  the  country,  for  the  early  Sultans 
were  always  ready  to  foster  trade  and  commerce  among  their 
subjects,  and  many  of  the  great  cities  entered  upon  an  era 
of  prosperity  when  the  Turkish  conquest  had  delivered  them 
from  the  paralysing  fiscal  oppression  of  the  Byzantine 
empire,  one  of  the  first  of  them  being  Nicaea,  which  capitu- 
lated to  Urkhan  in  1330  under  the  most  favourable  terms 
after  a  long-protracted  siege.3  Like  the  ancient  Romans, 
the  Ottomans  were  great  makers  of  roads  and  bridges,  and 
thereby  facilitated  trade  throughout  their  empire;  and 
foreign  states  were  compelled  to  admit  the  Greek  merchants 
into  ports  from  which  they  had  been  excluded  in  the  time  of 
the  Byzantine  emperors,  but  now  sailing  under  the  Ottoman 

1  Phrantzes,  p.  92. 

2  Finlay,  vol.  v.  pp.  5,  123.  Adeney,  p.  311.  Gerlach,  writing  in  the 
year  1577,  says  :  "  Wo  Christen  oder  Juden  in  den  Orten  wohnen,  da  es 
Kadi  oder  Richter  und  Subbassi  oder  Vogte  hat,  dass  die  gemeinen  Tiircken 
nicht  ihres  Gefallens  mit  ihnen  umbgehen  dorffen,  sind  sie  viel  lieber  unter 
den  Tiircken,  dann  unter  den  Christen.  Wann  sie  Jahrlich  ihren  Tribut 
geben,  sind  sie  hernach  frey.  Aber  in  der  Christenheit  ist  das  gantze  Jahr 
des  Gebens  kein  Ende."     (Tage-Buch,  p.  413.) 

3  Hertzberg,  pp.  467,  646,  650. 


150  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

flag,  they  assumed  the  dress  and  manners  of  Turks,  and  thus 
secured  from  the  nations  of  Western  Europe  the  respect  and 
consideration  which  the  Catholics  had  hitherto  always 
refused  to  the  members  of  the  Greek  Church.1 

There  is,  however,  one  notable  exception  to  this  general 
good  treatment  and  toleration,  viz.  the  tribute  of  Christian 
children,  who  were  forcibly  taken  from  their  parents  at  an 
early  age  and  enrolled  in  the  famous  corps  of  Janissaries. 
Instituted  by  Urkhan  in  1330,  it  formed  for  centuries  the 
mainstay  of  the  despotic  power  of  the  Turkish  Sultans,  and 
was  kept  alive  by  a  regular  contribution  exacted  every  four 
years,2  when  the  officers  of  the  Sultan  visited  the  districts 
on  which  the  tax  was  imposed,  and  made  a  selection  from 
among  the  children  about  the  age  of  seven.  The  Muham- 
madan  legists  attempted  to  apologise  for  this  inhuman 
tribute  by  representing  these  children  as  the  fifth  of  the 
spoil  which  the  Qur'an  assigns  to  the  sovereign,3  and  they 
prescribed  that  the  injunction  against  forcible  conversion  4 
should  be  observed  with  regard  to  them  also,  although  the 
tender  age  at  which  they  were  placed  under  the  instruction 
of  Muslim  teachers  must  have  made  it  practically  of  none 
effect.5  Christian  Europe  has  always  expressed  its  horror 
at  such  a  barbarous  tax,  and  travellers  in  the  Turkish 
dominions  have  painted  touching  pictures  of  desolated 
homes  and  of  parents  weeping  for  the  children  torn  from 
their  arms.  But  when  the  corps  was  first  instituted,  its 
numbers  were  rapidly  swelled  by  voluntary  accessions  from 
among  the  Christians  themselves,6  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  this  tribute  was  first  imposed  may  go  far  to 
explain  the  apathy  which  the  Greeks  themselves  appear  to 

1  Finlay,  vol.  v.  pp.  156-7. 

2  This  interval  was,  however,  not  a  fixed  one;  at  first,  the  levy  took 
place  every  seven  or  five  years,  but  later  at  more  frequent  intervals  accord- 
ing to  the  exigencies  of  the  state.  (Menzel,  p.  52.)  Metrophanes  Krito- 
poulos,  writing  in  1625,  states  that  the  collectors  came  to  the  cities  every 
seventh  year  and  that  each  city  had  to  contribute  three  or  four,  or  at  least 
two  boys  (p.  205). 

3  Qur'an,  viii.  42.  4  Id.  x.  99.  100. 

5  "  On  ne  forcait  cependant  pas  les  jeunes  Chretiens  a  changer  de  foi. 
Les  principes  du  gouvernement  s'y  opposaient  aussi  bien  que  les  preceptes 
du  Cour'ann ;  et  si  des  officiers,  mus  par  leur  fanatisme,  usaient  quelquefois 
de  contrainte,  leur  conduite  a  cet  egard  pouvait  bien  etre  toleree ;  mais  elle 
n'etait  jamais  autorisee  par  les  chefs."     (M.  d'Ohsson,  tome  iii.  pp.  397-8.) 

6  Hertzberg,  p.  472. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  151 

have  exhibited.  The  whole  country  had  been  laid  waste  by 
war,  and  families  were  often  in  danger  of  perishing  with 
hunger ;  the  children  who  were  thus  adopted  were  in  many 
cases  orphans,  who  would  otherwise  have  been  left  to  perish ; 
further,  the  custom  so  widely  prevalent  at  that  time  of 
selling  Christians  as  slaves  may  have  made  this  tax  appear 
less  appalling  than  might  have  been  expected.  This  custom 
has,  moreover,  been  maintained  to  have  been  only  a  con- 
tinuation of  a  similar  usage  that  was  in  force  under  the 
Byzantine  emperors.1  It  has  even  been  said  that  there  was 
seldom  any  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  force  on  the  part  of  the 
officers  who  collected  the  appointed  number  of  children, 
but  rather  that  the  parents  were  often  eager  to  have  their 
children  enrolled  in  a  service  that  secured  for  them  in  many 
cases  a  brilliant  career,  and  under  any  circumstances  a 
well-cared-for  and  comfortable  existence,  since  these  little 
captives  were  brought  up  and  educated  as  if  they  were  the 
Sultan's  own  children.2  This  institution  appears  in  a  Jess 
barbarous  light  if  it  be  true  that  the  parents  could  often 
redeem  their  children  by  a  money  payment.3  Metrophanes 
Kritopoulos,  who  was  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  and 
afterwards  of  Alexandria,  writing  in  1625,  mentions  various 
devices  adopted  by  the  Christians  for  escaping  from  the 
burden  of  this  tax,  e.  g.  they  purchased  Muhammadan  boys 
and  represented  them  to  be  Christians,  or  they  bribed  the 
collectors  to  take  Christian  boys  who  were  of  low  birth  or 
had  been  badly  brought  up  or  such  as  "  deserved  hanging."4 

1  "  Sed  hoc  tristissimum  est,  quod,  ut  olim  Christiani  imperatores,  ex 
singulis  oppidis,  certum  numerum  liberorum,  in  quibus  egregia  indoles  prae 
caeteris  elucebat,  delegerunt  :  quos  ad  publica  oflicia  militiae  togatae  et 
bellicas  in  Aula  educari  curarunt  :  ita  Turci,  occupato  Graecorum  imperio, 
idem  ius  eripiendi  patribus  familias  liberos  ingeniis  eximiis  praeditos, 
usurpant."  (David  Chytraeus,  pp.  12-14.) 

2  Creasy,  p.  99.  M.  d'Ohsson,  tome  iii.  p.  397-  Menzel,  p.  53.  Thomas 
Smith,  speaking  of  such  parents,  says :  "  Others,  to  the  great  shame  and 
dishonour  of  the  Religion,  Christians  only  in  name,  part  with  them  freely 
and  readily  enough,  not  only  because  they  are  rid  of  the  trouble  and  charge 
of  them,  but  in  hopes  they  may,  when  they  are  grown  up,  get  some  con- 
siderable command  in  the  government."  (An  Account  of  the  Greek  Church, 
p.  12.  London,  1680.)  In  the  reign  of  Murad  I,  Christian  troops  were 
employed  in  collecting  this  tribute  of  Christian  children.     (Finlay,  vol.  v. 

P-  45-)  ,.  .  .      ., 

3  "  Verum  tamen  hos  (liberos)  pecuma  redimere  a  conquisitonbus  saepe 

parentibus  licet."  (David  Chytraeus,  p.  13.)  De  la  Guilletiere  mentions 
it  in  1669  as  one  of  the  privileges  of  the  Athenians.  (An  Account  of  a  Late 
Voyage  to  Athens,  p.  272.     London,  1676.)  4  Confessio,  p.  205. 


152  THE  PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Thomas  Smith,  among  others,  speaks  of  the  possibility  of 
buying  off  the  children,  so  impressed  :  "  Some  of  their 
parents,  out  of  natural  pity  and  out  of  a  true  sense  of 
religion,  that  they  may  not  be  thus  robbed  of  their 
children,  who  hereby  lie  under  a  necessity  of  renouncing 
their  Christianity,  compound  for  them  at  the  rate  of  fifty 
or  a  hundred  dollars,  as  they  are  able,  or  as  they  can 
work  upon  the  covetousness  of  the  Turks  more  or  less."  1 
The  Christians  of  certain  cities,  such  as  Constantinople, 
and  of  towns  and  islands  that  had  made  this  stipulation  at 
the  time  of  their  submission  to  the  Turks,  or  had  pur- 
chased this  privilege,  were  exempted  from  the  operation  of 
this  cruel  tax.2  These  extenuating  circumstances  at  the 
outset,  and  the  ease  with  which  men  acquiesce  in  any 
established  usage — though  serving  in  no  way  as  an  excuse 
for  so  inhuman  an  institution — may  help  us  to  understand 
what  a  traveller  in  the  seventeenth  century  calls  the  "  un- 
accountable indifference  "  3  with  which  the  Greeks  seem 
to  have  fallen  in  with  this  demand  of  the  new  government, 
which  so  materially  improved  their  condition. 

Further,  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Turkish  empire  had 
to  pay  the  capitation-tax,  in  return  for  protection  and  in 
lieu  of  military  service.  The  rates  fixed  by  the  Ottoman  law 
were  2  J,  5  and  io  piastres  a  head  for  every  full-grown  male, 
according  to  his  income,4  women  and  the  clergy  being 
exempt.5  In  the  nineteenth  century  the  rates  were  15,  30 
and  60  piastres,  according  to  income.6  Christian  writers 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  generally 
speak    of    this    tax    as    being    a    ducat    a   head,7    but    it 

1  An  Account  of  the  Greek  Church,  p.  12.     (London,  1680.) 

2  Menzel,  p.  52.  Thomas  Smith  :  De  Moribus  ac  Institutis  Turcarum, 
p.  81.     (Oxonii,  1672.)  3  Hill,  p.  174. 

4  Joseph  von  Hammer  (2),  vol.  ii.  p.  151.  Hans  Schiltberger,  who  was 
captured  by  the  Turks  in  1396  and  returned  home  to  Munich  after  thirty- 
two  years'  captivity,  states  that  the  tax  the  Christians  had  to  pay  did  not 
amount  to  more  than  two  pfennig  a  month.     (Reisebuch,  p.  92.) 

5  Soli  Sacerdotes,  quasi  in  honorem  sacri  illius,  quo  funguntur,  Deo  ita 
ordinante,  ministerii  hoc  factum  sit,  una  cum  foeminis,  ab  hoc  tribute  pen- 
dendo  immunes  habentur.  (De  Graecas  Hodierno  Statu  Epistola,  authore 
Thoma  Smitho,  p.  12.)     (Trajecti  ad  Rhenum,  1698.) 

6  Silbernagl,  p.  60. 

7  Martin  Crusius,  p.  487;  Sansovino,  p.  67;  Georgieviz,  p.  98-9; 
Schemer,  §  56;  Hertzberg,  p.  648;  De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  267.  A  work 
published  in  London  in  1595,  entitled  "  The  Estate  of  Christians  living 


2 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  153 

is  also  variously  described  as  amounting  to  3,  5  or  5 1 
crowns  or  dollars.1  The  fluctuating  exchange  value  of 
the  Turkish  coinage  in  the  seventeenth  century  is  the 
probable  explanation  of  the  latter  variations.  To  estimate 
with  any  exactitude  how  far  this  tax  was  a  burden 
to  those  who  had  to  pay  it,  would  require  a  lengthened 
disquisition  on  the  purchasing  value  of  money  at  that 
period  and  a  comparison  with  other  items  of  expenditure 
But  by  itself  it  could  hardly  have  formed  a  valid  excuse  for 
a  change  of  faith,  as  Tournefort  points  out,  when  writing 
in  1700  of  the  conversion  of  the  Candiots  :  "It  must  be 
confessed,  these  Wretches  sell  their  Souls  a  Pennyworth  : 
all  they  get  in  exchange  for  their  Religion,  is  a  Vest,  and  the 
Privilege  of  being  exempt  from  the  Capitation-Tax,  which  is 
not  above  five  Crowns  a  year."  3  Schefrler  also,  who  is 
anxious  to  represent  the  condition  of  the  Christians  under 
Turkish  rule  in  as  black  colours  as  possible,  admits  that  the 
one  ducat  a  head  was  a  trifling  matter,  and  has  to  lay  stress 
on  the  extraordinary  taxes,  war  contributions,  etc.,  that 
they  were  called  upon  to  pay.4    The  land  taxes  were  the 


under  the  subjection  of  the  Turke,"  states  the  capitation-tax  for  male 
children  to  have  been  eight  shillings  (p.  2) .  Michel  Baudin  says  one  sequin 
a  head  for  every  male.     (Histoire  du  Serrail,  p.  7.     Paris,  1662.) 

1  Georgirenes,  p.  9;    Tournefort,  vol.  i.  p.  91;    Tavernier  (3),  p.  11. 

2  In  a  work  published  by  Joseph  Georgirenes,  Archbishop  of  Samos,  in 
1678,  during  a  visit  to  London,  he  gives  us  an  account  of  the  income  of  his 
own  see,  the  details  of  which  are  not  likely  to  have  been  considered  ex- 
tortionate, as  they  were  here  set  down  for  the  benefit  of  English  readers  : 
in  comparing  the  sums  here  mentioned,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  he 
speaks  of  the  capitation-tax  as  being  three  crowns  or  dollars  (pp.  8-9). 
"  At  his  (i.e.  the  Archbishop's)  first  coming,  the  Papas  or  Parish  Priest  of 
the  Church  of  his  Residence  presents  him  fifteen  or  twenty  dollers,  they  of 
the  other  Churches  according  to  their  Abilities.  The  first  year  of  his 
coming,  every  Parish  Priest  pays  him  four  dollers,  and  the  following  year 
two.  Every  Layman  pays  him  forty-eight  aspers  " — (In  the  commercial 
treaty  with  England,  concluded  in  the  year  1675,  the  value  of  the  dollar 
was  fixed  at  eighty  aspers  (Finlay,  v.  28) ) — "  and  the  following  years  twenty- 
four.  The  Samians  pay  one  Doller  for  a  Licence ;  all  Strangers  two ;  but 
he  that  comes  after  first  marriage  for  a  Licence  for  a  second  or  third,  pays 
three  or  four  "  (pp.  33-4).  3  Tournefort,  vol.  i.  p.  91. 

4  Schefrler,  §  56.  "  Was  aber  auch  den  Ducaten  anbelangt,  so  werdet 
ihr  mit  demselben  in  eurem  Sinn  ebener  massen  greulich  betrogen.  Denn 
es  ist  zwar  wahr,  dass  der  Tiirckische  Kayser  ordentlich  nicht  mehr  nimt 
als  vom  Haupt  einen  Ducaten  :  aber  wo  bleiben  die  Zolle  und  ausseror- 
dentliche  Anlagen  ?  nehmen  dann  seine  Konigliche  Verweser  und  Haupt- 
leute  nichts  ?  muss  man  zu  Kriegen  nichts  ausser  ordentlich  geben  ?  .  .  . 
Was  aber  die  ausser  ordentliche  Anlagen  betrifft;  die  steigen  und  fallen 
nach  den  bosen  Zeiten,  und  mussen  von  den  Tiirckischen  Unterthanen  so 
wohl  gegeben  werden  als  bey  uns." 


154  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

same  both  for  Christians  and  Musalmans,1  for  the  old  dis- 
tinction between  lands  on  which  tithe  was  paid  by  the 
Muhammadan  proprietor,  and  those  on  which  kharaj  was 
paid  by  the  non-Muhammadan  proprietor,  was  not  recognised 
by  the  Ottomans.2  Whatever  sufferings  the  Christians  had 
to  endure  proceeded  from  the  tyranny  of  individuals,  who 
took  advantage  of  their  official  position  to  extort  money 
from  those  under  their  jurisdiction.  Such  acts  of  oppression 
were  not  only  contrary  to  the  Muhammadan  law,  but  were 
rare  before  the  central  government  had  grown  weak  and 
suffered  the  corruption  and  injustice  of  local  authorities  to 
go  unpunished.3  There  is  a  very  marked  difference  between 
the  accounts  we  have  of  the  condition  of  the  Christians 
during  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Turkish  rule  in  Europe 
and  those  of  a  later  date,  when  the  period  of  decadence  had 
fully  set  in.  But  it  is  noticeable  that  in  those  very  times 
in  which  the  condition  of  the  Christians  had  been  most 
intolerable  there  is  least  record  of  conversion  to  Islam.  In 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  condition  of  the  Christians 
was  worse  than  at  any  other  period,  we  find  hardly  any 
mention  of  conversions  at  all,  and  the  Turks  themselves  are 
represented  as  utterly  indifferent  to  the  progress  of  their 
religion  and  considerably  infected  with  scepticism  and 
unbelief.4  A  further  proof  that  their  sufferings  have  been 
due  to  misgovernment  rather  than  to  religious  persecution 
is   the   fact   that   Muslims   and   Christians   suffered   alike.5 

1  Finlay,  vol.  v.  pp.  24-5.  H.  von  Moltke  :  Brief  uber  Zustande  und 
Begebenheiten  in  der  Turkei  aus  den  Jahren  1835  bis  1839,  pp.  274,  354. 
(5th  ed.,  Berlin,  1891.)  2  Hammer  (2),  vol.  i.  p.  346. 

3  "  The  hard  lot  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan  has  at  all  times 
arisen  from  the  fact  that  the  central  authority  at  Constantinople  has  but 
little  real  authority  throughout  the  Empire  of  Turkey.  It  is  the  petty 
tyranny  of  the  village  officials,  sharpened  by  personal  hatred,  which  has 
instigated  those  acts  of  atrocity  to  which,  both  in  former  times,  and  still 
more  at  the  present  day,  the  Christians  in  Turkey  are  subjected.  In  the 
days  of  a  nation's  greatness  justice  and  even  magnanimity  towards  a 
subject  race  are  possible;  these,  however,  are  rarely  found  to  exist  in  the 
time  of  a  nation's  decay."  (Rev.  W.  Denton  :  Servia  and  the  Servians, 
p.  15.     London,  1862.)     Gerlach,  pp.  49,  52. 

4  Businello,  pp.  43-4. 

5  "  The  central  government  of  the  Sultan  has  generally  treated  its 
Mussulman  subjects  with  as  much  cruelty  and  injustice  as  the  conquered 
Christians.  The  sufferings  of  the  Greeks  were  caused  by  the  insolence  and 
oppression  of  the  ruling  class  and  the  corruption  that  reigned  in  the  Otho- 
man  administration,  rather  than  by  the  direct  exercise  of  the  Sultan's  power. 
In  his  private  affairs,  a  Greek  had  a  better  chance  of  obtaining  justice  from 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  155 

The  Christians  would,  however,  naturally  be  more  exposed 
to  extortion  and  ill-treatment  owing  to  the  difficulties  that 
lay  in  the  way  of  obtaining  redress  at  law,  and  some  of  the 
poorest  may  thus  have  sought  a  relief  from  their  sufferings 
in  a  change  of  faith. 

But  if  we  except  the  tribute  of  the  children,  to  which  the 
conquered  Greeks  seem  to  have  submitted  with  so  little  show 
of  resistance,  and  which  owed  its  abolition,  not  to  any  revolt 
or  insurrection  against  its  continuance,  but  to  the  increase 
of  the  Turkish  population  and  of  the  number  of  the  renegades 
who  were  constantly  entering  the  Sultan's  service,1 — the 
treatment  of  their  Christian  subjects  by  the  Ottoman 
emperors — at  least  for  two  centuries  after  their  conquest 
of  Greece — exhibits  a  toleration  such  as  was  at  that  time 
quite  unknown  in  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  Calvinists  of 
Hungary  and  Transylvania,  and  the  Unitarians  of  the  latter 
country,  long  preferred  to  submit  to  the  Turks  rather  than 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  fanatical  house  of  Hapsburg ;  2 


his  bishop  and  the  elders  of  his  district  than  a  Turk  from  the  cadi  or  the 
voivode."     (Finlay,  vol.  vi.  pp.  4-5.) 

"  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Christians  are  the  only  part 
of  the  population  that  is  oppressed  and  miserable.  Turkish  misgovernment 
is  uniform,  and  falls  with  a  heavy  hand  upon  all  alike.  In  some  parts  of 
the  kingdom  the  poverty  of  the  Mussulmans  may  be  actually  worse  than 
the  poverty  of  the  Christians,  and  it  is  their  condition  which  most  excites 
the  pity  of  the  traveller."  (William  Forsyth  :  The  Slavonic  Provinces 
South  of  the  Danube,  pp.  157-8.     London,  1876.) 

"  All  this  oppression  and  misery  (i.e.  in  the  north  of  Asia  Minor)  falls  upon 
the  Mohammedan  population  equally  with  the  Christian."  (James 
Bryce  :    Transcaucasia  and  Ararat,  p.  381.) 

"  L'Europe  s'imagine  que  les  Chretiens  seuls  sont  soumis,  en  Turquie,  a 
l'arbitraire,  aux  souffrances,  aux  avilissements  de  toute  nature,  qui  naissent 
de  l'oppression ;  il  n'en  est  rien  !  Les  musulmans,  precisement  parce  que 
nulle  puissance  etrangere  ne  s'interesse  a  eux,  sont  peut-etre  plus  indigne- 
ment  spolies,  plus  courbes  sous  le  joug  que  ceux  qui  meconnaissent  le  pro- 
phete."     (De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  507.) 

"  To  judge  from  what  we  have  already  observed,  the  lowest  order  of 
Christians  are  not  in  a  worse  condition  in  Asia  Minor  than  the  same  class 
of  Turks ;  and  if  the  Christians  of  European  Turkey  have  some  advantages 
arising  from  the  effects  of  the  superiority  of  their  numbers  over  the  Turks, 
those  of  Asia  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  that  the  Turks  are  as  much 
oppressed  by  the  men  in  power  as  they  are  themselves ;  and  they  have  to 
deal  with  a  race  of  Mussulmans  generally  milder,  more  religious,  and  better 
principled  than  those  of  Europe."  (W.  M.  Leake  :  Journal  of  a  Tour  in 
Asia  Minor,  p.  7.     London,  1824.) 

Cf.  also  Laurence  Oliphant  :  The  Land  of  Gilead,  pp.  320-3,  446. 
(London,  1880.) 

1  It  was  in  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  tribute  of  children  fell  into 
desuetude,  and  the  last  recorded  example  of  its  exaction  was  in  the  year 
1676.  2  De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  333.     Schemer,  §  45-6.     Gasztowtt,  p.  51. 


156  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

and  the  Protestants  of  Silesia  looked  with  longing  eyes 
towards  Turkey,  and  would  gladly  have  purchased  religious 
freedom  at  the  price  of  submission  to  the  Muslim  rule.1  It 
was  to  Turkey  that  the  persecuted  Spanish  Jews  fled  for 
refuge  in  enormous  numbers  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,2  and  the  Cossacks  who  belonged  to  the  sect  of  the 
Old  Believers  and  were  persecuted  by  the  Russian  State 
Church,  found  in  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan  the  toleration 
which  their  Christian  brethren  denied  them.3  Well  might 
Macarius,  Patriarch  of  Antioch  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
congratulate  himself  when  he  saw  the  fearful  atrocities  that 
the  Catholic  Poles  inflicted  on  the  Russians  of  the  Orthodox 
Eastern  Church  :  "  We  all  wept  much  over  the  thousands 
of  martyrs  who  were  killed  by  those  impious  wretches,  the 
enemies  of  the  faith,  in  these  forty  or  fifty  years.  The 
number  probably  amounted  to  seventy  or  eighty  thousand 
souls.  O  you  infidels  !  O  you  monsters  of  impurity  !  O 
you  hearts  of  stone  !  What  had  the  nuns  and  women  done  ? 
What  the  girls  and  boys  and  infant  children,  that  you  should 
murder  them  ?  .  .  .  And  why  do  I  pronounce  them  (the 
Poles)  accursed  ?  Because  they  have  shown  themselves 
more  debased  and  wicked  than  the  corrupt  worshippers  of 
idols,  by  their  cruel  treatment  of  Christians,  thinking  to 
abolish  the  very  name  of  Orthodox.  God  perpetuate  the 
empire  of  the  Turks  for  ever  and  ever  !     For  they  take  their 

1  "  Denn  ich  hore  mit  grosser  Verwunderung  und  Bestiirtzung,  dass 
nicht  allein  unter  den  gemeinen  Povel  Reden  im  Schwange  gehn,  es  sey 
unter  dem  Tiircken  auch  gut  wohnen  :  wann  man  einen  Ducaten  von 
Haupt  gebe,  so  ware  man  frey ;  Item  er  Hesse  die  Religion  frey  ;  man  wiirde 
die  Kirchen  wieder  bekommen ;  und  was  vergleichen  :  sondern  dass  auch 
andre,  die  es  wol  besser  verstehen  sollten,  sich  dessen  erfreuen,  und  iiber 
ihr  eigen  Ungluck  frolocken  !  welches  nicht  allein  Halssbriichige,  sondern 
auch  Gottlose  Vermessenheiten  seynd,  die  aus  keinem  andrem  Grunde,  als 
aus  dem  Geist  der  Ketzerey,  der  zum  Auffruhr  und  gantzlicher  Ausreitung 
des  Christenthumbs  geneigt  ist,  herkommen."     (Scheffler,  §  48.) 

2  Hertzberg,  p.  650. 

3  De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  34.  A  similar  contrast  was  made  in  1605  by 
Richard  Staper,  an  English  merchant  who  had  been  in  Turkey  as  early  as 
1578  :  "  And  notwithstanding  that  the  Turks  in  general  be  a  most  wicked 
people,  walking  in  the  works  of  darkness  .  .  .  yet  notwithstanding  do  they 
permit  all  Christians,  both  Greeks  and  Latins,  to  live  in  their  religion  and 
freely  to  use  to  their  conscience,  allowing  them  churches  for  their  divine 
service,  both  in  Constantinople  and  very  many  other  places,  whereas  to  the 
contrary  by  proof  of  twelve  years'  residence  in  Spain  I  can  truly  affirm,  we 
are  not  only  forced  to  observe  their  popish  ceremonies,  but  in  danger  of  life 
and  goods  "  (M.  Epstein  :  The  Early  History  of  the  Levant  Company, 
p.  57.    London,  1908.) 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN  EUROPE  157 

impost,  and  enter  into  no  account  of  religion,  be  their  subjects 
Christians  or  Nazarenes,  Jews  or  Samarians  :  whereas  these 
accursed  Poles  were  not  content  with  taxes  and  tithes  from 
the  brethren  of  Christ,  though  willing  to  serve  them;  but 
they  subjected  them  to  the  authority  of  the  enemies  of 
Christ,  the  tyrannical  Jews,  who  did  not  even  permit  them 
to  build  churches,  nor  leave  them  any  priests  that  knew  the 
mysteries  of  their  faith."  *  Even  in  Italy  there  were  men 
who  turned  longing  eyes  towards  the  Turks  in  the  hope  that 
as  their  subjects  they  might  enjoy  the  freedom  and  the 
toleration  they  despaired  of  enjoying  under  a  Christian 
government.2  It  would  seem,  then,  that  Islam  was  not 
spread  by  force  in  the  dominion  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey, 
and  though  the  want  of  even-handed  justice  and  the 
oppression  of  unscrupulous  officials  in  the  days  of  the 
empire's  decline,  may  have  driven  some  Christians  to  attempt 
to  better  their  condition  by  a  change  of  faith,  such  cases 
were  rare  in  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Turkish  rule  in 
Europe,  to  which  period  the  mass  of  conversions  belong. 
It  would  have  been  wonderful  indeed  if  the  ardour  of  pro- 
selytising that  animated  the  Ottomans  at  this  time  had 
never  carried  them  beyond  the  bounds  of  toleration  estab- 
lished by  their  own  laws.  Yet  it  has  been  said  by  one  who 
was  a  captive  among  them  for  twenty-two  years  that  the 
Turks  "  compelled  no  one  to  renounce  his  faith."  3  Similar 
testimony  is  borne  by  others  :  an  English  gentleman  who 
visited  Turkey  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
tells  us  that  "  There  is  seldom  any  compulsion  of  conscience, 
and  then  not  by  death,  where  no  criminal  offence  gives 

1  Macarius,  vol.  i.  pp.  183,  165.  Cf.  the  memorial  presented  by  Polish 
refugees  from  Russia  to  the  Sublime  Porte,  in  1853.     (Gasztowtt,  p.  217.) 

2  "  Alii  speciem  sibi  quandam  confixerunt  stultam  libertatis  .  .  .  quod 
quum  sub  Christiano  consequuturos  se  desperent,  ideo  vel  Turcam  mallent  : 
quasi  is  benignior  sit  in  largienda  libertate  hac,  quam  Christianus. ' '  (Ioannis 
Ludovici  Vivis  De  Conditione  Vitae  Christianorum  sub  Turca,  pp.  220,  225.) 
(Basileae,  1538.)  "  Quidam  obganniunt,  liberam  esse  sub  Turca  fidem." 
(Othonis  Brunfelsii  ad  Principes  et  Christianos  omnes  Oratio,  p.  133.) 
(Basileae,  1538.)  Ubertus  Folieta,  a  noble  of  Genoa,  writing  about  1577,  says, 
"  Saepe  mecum  quaesivi  .  .  .  qua  re  fiat,  ut  tot  de  nostris  hominibus  ad  illos 
continenter  transfugiant,  Christianaque  religione  eiurata  Mahumetanae 
sectae  nomina  dent."  (De  Causis  Magnitudinis  Turcarum  Imperii,  col.  1209.) 
(Thesaurus  Antiquitatum  et  Historiarum  Italiae,  cura  Joannis  Georgii 
Graevii,  torn.  i.     Lugduni  Batavorum,  1725.) 

3  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xvii.  (a). 


158  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

occasion."  x  Writing  about  thirty  years  later  (in  1663), 
the  author  2  of  a  Turcken-Schrifft  says  :  "  Meanwhile  he 
(i.e.  the  Turk)  wins  (converts)  by  craft  more  than  by  force, 
and  snatches  away  Christ  by  fraud  out  of  the  hearts  of  men. 
For  the  Turk,  it  is  true,  at  the  present  time  compels  no 
country  by  violence  to  apostatise ;  but  he  uses  other  means 
whereby  imperceptibly  he  roots  out  Christianity.  .  .  .  What 
then  has  become  of  the  Christians  ?  They  are  not  expelled 
from  the  country,  neither  are  they  forced  to  embrace  the 
Turkish  faith  :  then  they  must  of  themselves  have  been 
converted  into  Turks." 

The  Turks  considered  that  the  greatest  kindness  they  could 
show  a  man  was  to  bring  him  into  the  salvation  of  the  faith 
of  Islam,3  and  to  this  end  they  left  no  method  of  persuasion 
untried  :  a  Dutch  traveller  of  the  sixteenth  century,  tells 
us  that  while  he  was  admiring  the  great  mosque  of  Santa 
Sophia,  some  Turks  even  tried  to  work  upon  his  religious 
feelings  through  his  aesthetic  sense,  saying  to  him,  "  If  you 
become  a  Musalman,  you  will  be  able  to  come  here  every 
day  of  your  life."  About  a  century  later,  an  English 
traveller  4  had  a  similar  experience  :  "  Sometimes,  out  of 
an  excess  of  zeal,  they  will  ask  a  Christian  civilly  enough,  as 
I  have  been  asked  myself  in  the  Portico  of  Sancta  Sophia, 
why  will  you  not  turn  Musalman,  and  be  as  one  of  us  ?  ; 
The  public  rejoicings  that  hailed  the  accession  of  a  new 
convert  to  the  faith,  testify  to  the  ardent  love  for  souls  which 
made  these  men  such  zealous  proselytisers.  The  new 
Muslim  was  set  upon  a  horse  and  led  in  triumph  through 
the  streets  of  the  city.  If  he  was  known  to  be  genuinely 
honest  in  his  change  of  faith  and  had  voluntarily  entered 
the  pale  of  Islam,  or  if  he  was  a  person  of  good  position,  he 
was  received  with  high  honour  and  some  provision  made  for 
his  support.5  There  was  certainly  abundant  evidence  for 
saying  that  "  The  Turks  are  preposterously  zealous  in  pray- 
ing for  the  conversion,  or  perversion  rather,  of  Christians 
to  their  irreligious  religion  :  they  pray  heartily,  and  every 
day  in  their  Temples,   that   Christians   may  imbrace   the 

1  Blount,  vol.  i.  p.  548.  2  Scheffler,  §§  51,  53. 

3  Dousa,  p.  38.     Busbecq,  p.  190.  4  Thomas  Smith,  p.  32. 

6  Thomas  Smith,   p.   42.     Blount,   vol.   i.   p.    548.     Georgieviz,   p.   20. 
Schiltberger,  pp.  83-4.     Baudier,  pp.  149,  313. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN  EUROPE  159 

Alcoran,  and  become  their  Proselytes,  in  effecting  of  which 
they  leave  no  means  unassaied  by  fear  and  flattery,  by 
punishments  and  rewards."  x 

These  zealous  efforts  for  winning  converts  were  rendered 
the  more  effective  by  certain  conditions  of  Christian  society 
itself.  Foremost  among  these  was  the  degraded  condition 
of  the  Greek  Church.  Side  by  side  with  the  civil  despotism 
of  the  Byzantine  empire,  had  arisen  an  ecclesiastical 
despotism  which  had  crushed  all  energy  of  intellectual  life 
under  the  weight  of  a  dogmatism  that  interdicted  all  dis- 
cussion in  matters  of  morals  and  religion.  The  only  thing 
that  disturbed  this  lethargy  was  the  fierce  controversial 
war  waged  against  the  Latin  Church  with  all  the  bitterness 
of  theological  polemics  and  race  hatred.  The  religion  of  the 
people  had  degenerated  into  a  scrupulous  observance  of 
outward  forms,  and  the  intense  fervour  of  their  devotion 
found  an  outlet  in  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  and  the  saints, 
of  pictures  and  relics.  There  were  many  who  turned  from 
a  Church  whose  spiritual  life  had  sunk  so  low,  and  weary  of 
interminable  discussions  on  such  subtle  points  of  doctrine 
as  the  Double  Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  such 
trivialities  as  the  use  of  leavened  and  unleavened  bread  in 
the  Blessed  Sacrament,  gladly  accepted  the  clear  and 
intelligible  theistic  teaching  of  Islam.  We  are  told  2  of  large 
numbers  of  persons  being  converted,  not  only  from  among 
the  simple  folk,  but  also  learned  men  of  every  class,  rank  and 
condition;  of  how  the  Turks  made  a  better  provision  for 
those  monks  and  priests  who  embraced  the  Muslim  creed,  in 
order  that  their  example  might  lead  others  to  be  converted. 
While  Adrianople  was  still  the  Turkish  capital  (e.  g.  before 

1  Alexander  Ross,  p.  ix.  Baudier,  p.  317.  Cf.  also  Rycaut,  vol.  i.  p.  276. 
"  On  croit  meriter  beaucoup  que  de  faire  un  Proselyte,  il  n'y  a  personne 
assez  riche  pour  avoir  un  esclave  qui  n'en  veuille  un  jeune,  qui  soit  capable  de 
recevoir  sans  peine  toutes  sortes  d'impressions,  et  qu'il  puisse  appeller  son 
converti,  ann  de  meriter  l'honneur  d'avoir  augmente  le  nombre  des  ndeles." 
Thomas  Smith  relates  how  the  old  man  who  showed  him  the  tomb  of 
Urkhan  at  Brusa  "  ingenti  cum  fervore,  oculis  ad  Caelum  elevatis,  Deum 
precatus  est  ut  nos  ad  fidem  Musulmannicam  suo  tempore  tandem  con- 
vertere  dignaretur  :  Hoc  nimirum  est  summum  erga  nos  affectus  testi- 
monium, qui  ex  isto  falso  et  imperitissimo  zelo  solet  profluere."  (Epistolae 
duae,  quarum  altera  De  Moribus  ac  Institutis  Turcarum  agit,  p.  20.) 
(Oxonii,  1672.) 

2  By  an  anonymous  writer  who  was  a  captive  in  Turkey  from  1436  to 
1458.     Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xvii.  (a). 


160  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

1453)  the  court  was  thronged  with  renegades,  and  they  are 
said  to  have  formed  the  majority  of  the  magnates  there.1 
Byzantine  princes  and  others  often  passed  over  to  the  side 
of  the  Muhammadans,  and  received  a  ready  welcome  among 
them  :  one  of  the  earliest  of  such  cases  dates  from  1140 
when  a  nephew  of  the  emperor  John  Comnenes  embraced 
Islam  and  married  a  daughter  of  Mas'ud,  the  Sultan  of 
Iconium.2  After  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  the  upper 
classes  of  Christian  society  showed  much  more  readiness  to 
embrace  Islam  than  the  mass  of  the  Greeks;  among  the 
converts  we  meet  with  several  bearing  the  name  of  the  late 
imperial  family  of  the  Palaeologi,  and  the  learned  George 
Amiroutzes  of  Trebizond  abandoned  Christianity  in  his 
declining  years,  and  the  names  of  many  other  such  individuals 
have  found  a  record.3  The  new  religion  only  demanded 
assent  to  its  simple  creed,  "  There  is  no  god  but  God  : 
Muhammad  is  the  apostle  of  God  " ;  as  the  above-mentioned 
writer  4  says,  "  The  whole  difficulty  lies  in  this  profession  of 
faith.  For  if  only  a  man  can  persuade  himself  that  he  is  a 
worshipper  of  the  One  God,  the  poison  of  his  error  easily 
infects  him  under  the  guise  of  religion.  This  is  the  rock  of 
offence  on  which  many  have  struck  and  fallen  into  the  snare 
that  has  brought  perdition  on  their  souls.  This  is  the 
mill-stone  that  hung  about  the  necks  of  many  has  plunged 
them  into  the  pit  of  despair.  For  when  these  fools  hear  the 
Turks  execrate  idolatry  and  express  their  horror  of  every 
image  and  picture  as  though  it  were  the  fire  of  hell,  and  so 
continually  profess  and  preach  the  worship  of  One  God, 
there  no  longer  remains  any  room  for  suspicion  in  their 
minds." 

The  faith  of  Islam  would  now  be  the  natural  refuge  for 

1  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xi.  (b).  Lionardo  of  Scio,  Arch- 
bishop of  Mitylene,  who  was  present  at  the  taking  of  Constantinople,  speaks 
of  the  large  number  of  renegades  in  the  besieging  army  :  "  Chi  circondo 
la  citta,  e  chi  insegno  a'  turchi  l'ordine,  se  non  i  pessimi  christiani  ?  Io 
son  testimonio,  che  i  Greci,  ch'  i  Latini,  che  i  Tedeschi,  che  gli  Ungari,  e  che 
ogni  altra  generation  di  christiani,  mescolati  co'  turchi  impararono  l'opere 
e  la  fede  loro,  i  quali  domenticatisi  della  fede  Christiana,  espugnavano  la 
citta.  O  empij  che  rinegasti  Christo.  O  settatori  di  antichristo,  dannati 
alle  pene  infernali,  questo  e  hora  il  vostro  tempo."     (Sansovino,  p.  258.) 

2  J.  H.  Krause  :  Die  Byzantiner  des  Mittelalters,  pp.  385-6.    (Halle,  1869.) 

3  Hertzberg,  p.  616.     Finlay,  vol.  v.  p.  118. 

*  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xix.  (a). 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  EUROPE  161 

those  members  of  the  Eastern  Church  who  felt  such  yearnings 
after  a  purer  and  simpler  form  of  doctrine  as  had  given  rise 
to  the  Paulician  heresy  so  fiercely  suppressed  a  few  centuries 
before.  This  movement  had  been  very  largely  a  protest 
against  the  superstitions  of  the  Orthodox  Church,  against 
the  worship  of  images,  relics  and  saints,  and  an  effort  after 
simplicity  of  faith  and  the  devout  life.  As  some  adherents 
of  this  heresy  were  to  be  found  in  Bulgaria  even  so  late  as  the 
seventeenth  century,1  the  Muhammadan  conquerors  doubt- 
less found  many  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  the  Greek  Church ;  and  as  all  the  conditions  were 
unfavourable  to  the  formation  of  any  such  Protestant 
Churches  as  arose  in  the  West,  such  dissentient  spirits  would 
doubtless  find  a  more  congenial  atmosphere  in  the  religion 
of  Islam.  There  is  every  reason  to  think  that  such  was  the 
result  of  the  unsuccessful  attempt  to  Protestantise  the 
Greek  Church  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  guiding  spirit  of  this  movement  was  Cyril  Lucaris,  five 
times  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  from  1621  to  1638;  as  a 
young  man  he  had  visited  the  Universities  of  Wittenberg 
and  Geneva,  for  the  purpose  of  studying  theology  in  the 
seats  of  Protestant  learning,  and  on  his  return  he  kept  up  a 
correspondence  with  doctors  of  the  reformed  faith  in  Geneva, 
Holland  and  England.  But  neither  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  of  England  nor  of  the  Lutherans  attracted  his 
sympathies  so  warmly  as  the  teachings  of  John  Calvin,2 
which  he  strove  to  introduce  into  the  Greek  Church;  his 
efforts  in  this  direction  were  warmly  supported  by  the 
Calvinists  of  Geneva,  who  sent  a  learned  young  theologian, 
named  Leger,  to  assist  the  work  by  translating  into  Greek 
the  writings  of  Calvinist  theologians.3  Cyril  also  found 
warm  friends  in  the  Protestant  embassies  at  Constantinople, 
the  Dutch  and  English  ambassadors  especially  assisting  him 
liberally  with  funds ;  the  Jesuits,  on  the  other  hand,  sup- 
ported by  the  Catholic  ambassadors,  tried  in  every  way  to 
thwart  this  attempt  to  Calvinise  the  Greek  Church,  and 
actively  seconded  the  intrigues  of  the  party  of  opposition 
among  the  Greek  clergy,  who  finally  compassed  the  death 

1  Rycaut,  vol.  i.  pp.  710-11.     Bizzi,  fol.  49  (b). 

2  Pichler,  pp.  164,  172.  3  Id.  p.  143- 
M 


i62  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

of  the  Patriarch.  In  1629  Cyril  published  a  Confession  of 
Faith,  the  main  object  of  which  seems  to  have  been  to  present 
the  doctrines  of  the  Orthodox  Church  in  their  opposition  to 
Roman  Catholicism  in  such  a  way  as  to  imply  a  necessary 
accord  with  Protestant  teaching.1  From  Calvin  he  borrows 
the  doctrines  of  Predestination  and  salvation  by  faith  alone, 
he  denies  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  rejects  the  authority 
of  the  Church  in  the  interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture,  and 
condemns  the  adoration  of  pictures  :  in  his  account  of  the 
will  and  in  many  other  questions,  he  inclines  rather  to  Cal- 
vinism than  to  the  teachings  of  the  Orthodox  Church.2 
The  promulgation  of  this  Confession  of  Faith  as  representing 
the  teaching  of  the  whole  Church  of  which  he  was  the  spiritual 
head,  excited  violent  opposition  among  the  mass  of  the 
Greek  clergy,  and  a  few  weeks  after  Cyril's  death  a  synod 
was  held  to  condemn  his  opinions  and  pronounce  him  to  be 
Anathema;  in  1642  a  second  synod  was  held  at  Constanti- 
nople for  the  same  purpose,  which  after  refuting  each  article 
of  Cyril's  Confession  in  detail,  as  the  first  had  done,  thus 
fulminated  its  curse  upon  him  and  his  followers  : — "  With 
one  consent  and  in  unqualified  terms,  we  condemn  this  whole 
Confession  as  full  of  heresies  and  utterly  opposed  to  our 
orthodoxy,  and  likewise  declare  that  its  compiler  has  nothing 
in  common  with  our  faith,  but  in  calumnious  fashion  has 
falsely  charged  his  own  Calvinism  on  us.  All  those  who  read 
and  keep  it  as  true  and  blameless,  and  defend  it  by  written 
word  or  speech,  we  thrust  out  of  the  community  of  the  faith- 
ful as  followers  and  partakers  of  his  heresy  and  corruptors 
of  the  Christian  Church,  and  command  that  whatever  be 
their  rank  and  station,  they  be  treated  as  heathen  and 
publicans.  Let  them  be  laid  under  an  anathema  for  ever 
and  cut  off  from  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  this  life  and  in  the  life  to  come,  accursed,  excommunicated, 
be  lost  after  death,  and  be  partakers  of  everlasting  punish- 
ment." 3  In  1672  a  third  synod  met  at  Jerusalem  to  re- 
pudiate the  heretical  articles  of  this  Confession  of  Faith  and 
vindicate  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Greek  Church  against  those 

1  Pichler,  p.  148.     It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  Cyril  was  really  the 
author  of  this  document  bearing  his  name.     (Kyriakos,  p.  100.) 
*  Id.  pp.  183-9.  3  Id.  p.  226. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  163 

who  represented  her  as  infected  with  Calvinism.  The 
attempt  to  Protestantise  the  Greek  Church  thus  completely 
failed  to  achieve  success  :  the  doctrines  of  Calvin  were 
diametrically  opposed  to  her  teachings,  and  indeed  incul- 
cated many  articles  of  faith  that  were  more  in  harmony  with 
the  tenets  of  Muslim  theologians  than  with  those  of  the 
Orthodox  Church,  and  which  moreover  she  had  often  at- 
tacked in  her  controversies  with  her  Muhammadan  adver- 
saries. It  is  this  approximation  to  Islamic  thought  which 
gives  this  movement  towards  Calvinism  a  place  in  a  history 
of  the  spread  of  Islam  :  a  man  who  inveighed  against  the 
adoration  of  pictures,  decried  the  authority  and  the  very 
institution  of  the  priesthood,  maintained  the  doctrines  of 
absolute  Predestination,  denied  freedom  to  the  human  will 
and  was  in  sympathy  with  the  stern  spirit  of  Calvinism  that 
had  more  in  common  with  the  Old  than  the  New  Testament 
— would  certainly  find  a  more  congenial  atmosphere  in 
Islam  than  in  the  Greek  Church  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  among  the  numerous 
converts  of  Islam  during  that  century  were  to  be  found  men 
who  had  been  alienated  from  the  Church  of  their  fathers 
through  their  leanings  towards  Calvinism.1  We  have  no 
definite  information  as  to  the  number  of  the  followers  of 
Cyril  Lucaris  and  the  extent  of  Calvinistic  influences  in  the 
Greek  Church ;  the  clergy,  jealous  of  the  reputation  of  their 
Church,  whose  orthodoxy  and  immunity  from  heresy  were 
so  boastfully  vindicated  by  her  children,  and  had  thus  been 
impugned  through  the  suspicion  of  Calvinism,  wished  to 
represent  the  heretical  patriarch  as  standing  alone  in  his 
opinions.2  But  a  following  he  undoubtedly  had :  his 
Confession  of  Faith  had  received  the  sanction  of  a  synod 
composed  of  his  followers ;  3  those  who  sympathised  with 
his  heresies  were  anathematised  both  by  the  second  synod 
of  Constantinople  (1642)  and  by  the  synod  of  Jerusalem 
(1672)  4 — surely  a  meaningless  repetition,  had  no  such 
persons  existed ;   moreover  the  names  of  some  few  of  these 

1  As  regards  the  Christian  captives  the  Protestants  certainly  had  the 
reputation  among  the  Turks  of  showing  a  greater  inclination  towards 
conversion  than  the  Catholics.     (Gmelin,  p.  21.) 

2  Pichler,  pp.  211,  227.  3  Id.  pp.  181,  228. 
4  Id.  pp.  222,  226. 


164  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

have  come  down  to  us  :  Sophronius,  Metropolitan  of  Athens, 
was  a  warm  supporter  of  the  Reformation ; x  a  monk  named 
Nicodemus  Metaras,  who  had  brought  a  printing-press  from 
London  and  issued  heretical  treatises  therefrom,  was  re- 
warded with  a  metropolitan  see  by  Cyril  in  return  for  his 
services ;  2  the  philosopher  Corydaleus,  a  friend  of  Cyril, 
opened  a  Calvinistic  school  in  Constantinople,  and  another 
Greek,  Gerganos,  published  a  Catechism  so  as  to  introduce 
the  teachings  of  Calvin  among  his  fellow-countrymen ;  3 
and  Neophytus  II,  who  was  made  Patriarch  in  1636,  while 
Cyril  was  in  exile  in  the  island  of  Rhodes,  was  his  disciple 
and  adopted  son;  he  recalled  his  master  from  banishment 
and  resigned  the  patriarchal  chair  in  his  favour.4  In  a 
letter  to  the  University  of  Geneva  (dated  July,  1636),  Cyril 
writes  that  Leger  had  gained  a  large  number  of  converts  to 
Calvinism  by  his  writings  and  preaching ; 5  in  another  letter 
addressed  to  Leger,  he  describes  how  he  had  made  his  in- 
fluence felt  in  Candia.6  His  successor  7  in  the  patriarchal 
chair  was  banished  to  Carthage  and  there  strangled  by  the 
adherents  of  Lucaris  in  1639. 8  The  Calvinists  are  said 
to  have  entertained  hopes  of  Parthenius  I  (the  successor 
of  Cyril  II),  but  his  untimely  end  (whether  by  poison 
or  banishment  is  uncertain)  disappointed  their  expecta- 
tions.9 Parthenius  II,  who  was  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople from  1644  to  1646,  was  at  heart  a  thorough 
Calvinist,  and  though  he  did  not  venture  openly  to  teach 
the  doctrines  of  Calvin,  still  his  known  sympathy  with 
them  caused  him  to  be  deposed,  sent  into  exile  and 
strangled.10  Thus  the  influence  of  Calvinism  was  un- 
doubtedly more  widespread  than  the  enemies  of  Cyril 
Lucaris  were  willing  to  admit,  and  as  stated  above,  those 
who  refused  to  bow  to  the  anathemas  of  the  synods  that 
condemned  their  leader,  had  certainly  more  in  common  with 
their  Muhammadan  neighbours  than  with  the  Orthodox 
clergy  who  cast  them  out  of  their  midst.  There  is  no  actual 
evidence,   it   is  true,   of  Calvinistic  influences   in  Turkey 

1  Pichler,  p.  173.  2  Id.  pp.  128,  132,  143. 

3  Id.  p.  143.  *  Le  Quien,  torn.  i.  col.  334. 

6  Pichler,  p.  172.  6  Hefele,  vol.  i.  p.  473. 

7  Cyril  II  of  Berrhcea.  8  Le  Quien,  torn.  i.  col.  335. 
•  Id.  torn.  i.  col.  336.  10  Id.  torn.  i.  col.  337. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  165 

facilitating  conversion  to  Islam,1  but  in  the  absence  of  any 
other  explanation  it  certainly  seems  a  very  plausible  con- 
jecture that  such  were  among  the  factors  that  so  enormously 
increased  the  number  of  the  Greek  renegades  towards  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century — a  period  during  which 
the  number  of  renegades  from  among  the  middle  and  lower 
orders  of  society  is  said  to  have  been  more  considerable  than 
at  any  other  time.2  Frequent  mention  is  made  of  cases  of 
apostasy  from  among  the  clergy,  and  even  among  the 
highest  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  such  as  a  former  Metro- 
politan of  Rhodes.3  In  1676  it  is  said  that  in  Corinth  some 
Christian  people  went  over  every  day  to  "  the  Turkish 
abomination,"  and  that  three  priests  had  become  Musal- 
mans  the  year  before ;  4  in  1679  is  recorded  the  death  of  a 
renegade  monk.5  On  the  occasion  of  the  circumcision  of 
Mustafa,  son  of  Muhammad  IV,  in  1675,  there  were  at 
least  two  hundred  proselytes  made  during  the  thirteen  days 
of  public  rejoicing,6  and  numerous  other  instances  may  be 
found  in  writings  of  this  period.  A  contemporary  writer 
(1663)  has  well  described  the  mental  attitude  of  such  con- 
verts. "  When  you  mix  with  the  Turks  in  the  ordinary 
intercourse  of  life  and  see  that  they  pray  and  sing  even  the 
Psalms  of  David;  that  they  give  alms  and  do  other  good 
works;  that  they  think  highly  of  Christ,  hold  the  Bible  in 
great  honour,  and  the  like ;  that,  besides,  any  ass  may  become 
parish  priest  who  plies  the  Bassa  with  presents,  and  he  will 

1  However,  in  an  earlier  attempt  made  by  the  Protestant  theologians  of 
Tubingen  (1573-77)  to  introduce  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformed  Church  into 
the  Eastern  Church,  the  Vaivode  Quarquar  of  Samtskheth  in  Georgia 
embraced  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  but  in  1580  became  a  Muslim. 
(Joselian,  p.  140.) 

2  Schemer,  §§  53-6.     Finlay,  vol.  v.  pp.  118-19. 

3  Hammer  (1),  vol.  vi.  p.  94.  4  Spon,  vol.  ii.  p.  57. 

5  Hammer  (1),  vol.  vi.  p.  364. 

6  Early  Voyages  and  Travels  in  the  Levant,  edited  by  J.  Theodore  Bent, 
p.  210.  (London,  1893.)  Similarly,  Michel  Baudier  concludes  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  festivities  in  Constantinople  on  the  occasion  of  the  circumcision 
of  Muhammad  III  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  with  an 
account  of  the  conversion  of  a  large  number  of  Christians.  "  During  the 
spectacles  of  this  solemnity,  the  wretched  Grecians  ran  by  troupes  in  this 
place  to  make  themselves  Mahometans;  Some  abandoned  Christianitie 
to  avoid  the  oppression  of  the  Turkes,  others  for  the  hope  of  private 
profit.  .  .  .  The  number  of  these  cast-awayes  was  found  to  be  above  foure 
thousand  soules."  (The  History  of  the  Serrail,  and  of  the  Court  of  the 
Grand  Seigneur  Emperour  of  the  Turkes,  pp.  93~4-  (London,  1635.) 
Histoire  generale  du  Serrail,  et  de  la  Cour  du  Grand  Seigneur,  Empereur 
des  Turcs,  pp.  89-90.     (Paris,  1631.)) 


166  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

not  urge  Christianity  on  you  very  much ;  so  you  will  come 
to  think  that  they  are  good  people  and  will  very  probably 
be  saved ;  and  so  you  will  come  to  believe  that  you  too  may 
be  saved,  if  you  likewise  become  Turks.  Herewith  will  the 
Holy  Trinity  and  the  crucified  Son  of  God,  with  many  other 
mysteries  of  the  faith,  which  seem  quite  absurd  to  the  un- 
enlightened reason,  easily  pass  out  of  your  thoughts,  and 
imperceptibly  Christianity  will  quite  die  out  in  you,  and  you 
will  think  that  it  is  all  the  same  whether  you  be  Christians 
or  Turks."  * 

Thomas  Smith,  who  was  in  Constantinople  in  1669, 
speaks  of  the  number  of  Christian  converts  about  this 
period,  but  assigns  baser  motives.  "  'Tis  sad  to  consider 
the  great  number  of  wretched  people,  who  turn  Turks ;  some 
out  of  meer  desperation;  being  not  able  to  support  the 
burthen  of  slavery,  and  to  avoid  the  revilings  and  insultings 
of  the  Infidels ;  some  out  of  a  wanton  light  humour,  to  put 
themselves  into  a  condition  of  domineering  and  insulting 
over  others  .  .  .  some  to  avoid  the  penalties  and  inflictions 
due  to  their  heinous  crimes,  and  to  enjoy  the  brutish  liberties, 
that  Mahomet  consecrated  by  his  own  example,  and  recom- 
mended to  his  followers.  These  are  the  great  and  tempting 
arguments  and  motives  of  their  apostasy,  meer  considera- 
tions of  ease,  pleasure  and  prosperity,  or  else  of  vanity  and 
guilt ;  for  it  cannot  be  presumed,  that  any  through  conviction 
of  mind  should  be  wrought  upon  to  embrace  the  dotages  and 
impostures  of  Turcisme."  2  Records  of  conversions  after 
this  period  are  rare,  but  Motraye  gives  an  account  of  several 
renegades,  who  became  Muhammadans  in  Constantinople 
in  1703 ;  among  them  was  a  French  priest  and  some  other 
French  Catholics,  and  some  priests  from  Smyrna.3 

Another  feature  in  the  condition  of  the  Greek  Church  that 
contributed  to  the  decay  of  its  numbers,  was  the  corruption 
and  degradation  of  its  pastors,  particularly  the  higher  clergy. 
The  sees  of  bishops  and  archbishops  were  put  up  to  auction 
to  the  highest  bidders,  and  the  purchasers  sought  to  recoup 

1  Schemer,  §55. 

2  Thomas    Smith:    An    Account    of    the    Greek    Church,    pp.     15-16. 
(London,  1680.) 

3  A.  de  la  Motraye  :  Voyages  en  Europe,  Asie  et  Afrique,  vol.  i.  pp.  306, 
308.     (La  Haye,  1727.) 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  167 

themselves  by  exacting  levies  of  all  kinds  from  their  flocks ; 
they  burdened  the  unfortunate  Christians  with  taxes 
ordinary  and  extraordinary,  made  them  purchase  all  the 
sacraments  at  exorbitant  rates,  baptism,  confession,  holy 
communion,  indulgences,  and  the  right  of  Christian  burial. 
Some  of  the  clergy  even  formed  an  unholy  alliance  with  the 
Janissaries,  and  several  bishops  had  their  names  and  those 
of  their  households  inscribed  on  the  list  of  one  of  their  Ortas 
or  regiments,  the  better  to  secure  an  immunity  for  their 
excesses  and  escape  the  punishment  of  their  crimes  under 
the  protection  of  this  corporation  which  the  weakness  of  the 
Ottoman  rulers  had  allowed  to  assume  such  a  powerful 
position  in  the  state.1  The  evidence  of  contemporary  eye- 
witnesses to  the  oppressive  behaviour  of  the  Greek  clergy 
presents  a  terrible  picture  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Christians. 
Tournefort  in  1700,  after  describing  the  election  of  a  new 
Patriarch,  says  :  "  We  need  not  at  all  doubt  but  the  new 
Patriarch  makes  the  best  of  his  time.  Tyranny  succeeds 
to  Simony  :  the  first  thing  he  does  is  to  signify  the  Sultan's 
order  to  all  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  his  clergy  :  his 
greatest  study  is  to  know  exactly  the  revenues  of  each 
Prelate;  he  imposes  a  tax  upon  them,  and  enjoins  them 
very  strictly  by  a  second  letter  to  send  the  sum  demanded, 
otherwise  their  dioceses  are  adjudg'd  to  the  highest  bidder. 
The  Prelates  being  used  to  this  trade,  never  spare  their 
Suffragans ;  these  latter  torment  the  Papas  :  the  Papas 
flea  the  Parishioners  and  hardly  sprinkle  the  least  drop  of 
Holy  Water,  but  what  they  are  paid  for  beforehand. 
If  afterwards  the  Patriarch  has  occasion  for  money,  he 
farms  out  the  gathering  of  it  to  the  highest  bidder  among 
the  Turks  :  he  that  gives  most  for  it,  goes  into  Greece  to 
cite  the  Prelates.  Usually  for  twenty  thousand  crowns 
that  the  clergy  is  tax'd  at,  the  Turk  extorts  two  and  twenty ; 
so  that  he  has  the  two  thousand  crowns  for  his  pains, 
besides  having  his  charges  borne  in  every  diocese.  In 
virtue  of  the  agreement  he  has  made  with  the  Patriarch,  he 
deprives  and  interdicts  from  all  ecclesiastical  functions, 
those  prelates  who  refuse  to  pay  their  tax."  2    The  Christian 

1  Pitzipios,  Seconde  Partie,  pp.  83-7.     Pichler,  p.  29. 

2  Tournefort,  vol.  i.  p.  107.    Spon  uses  much  the  same  language,  vol.  i.  p.  56. 


168  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

clergy  are  even  said  to  have  carried  off  the  children  of  the 
parishioners  and  sold  them  as  slaves,  to  get  money  for  their 
simoniacal  designs.1 

The  extortions  practised  in  the  seventeenth  have  found 
their  counterpart  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  Christians  of  the  Greek  Church  in  Bosnia,  before 
the  Austrian  occupation,  exactly  illustrate  the  words  of 
Tournefort.  The  Metropolitan  of  Serajevo  used  to  wring  as 
much  as  £10,000  a  year  from  his  miserable  flock — a  sum 
exactly  double  the  salary  of  the  Turkish  Governor  himself — 
and  to  raise  this  enormous  sum  the  unfortunate  parishioners 
were  squeezed  in  every  possible  way,  and  the  Turkish 
authorities  had  orders  to  assist  the  clergy  in  levying  their 
exactions ;  and  whole  Christian  villages  suffered  the  fate 
of  sacked  cities,  for  refusing,  or  often  being  unable,  to 
comply  with  the  exorbitant  demands  of  Christian  Prelates.2 
Such  unbearable  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  spiritual 
leaders  who  should  protect  the  Christian  population,  has 
often  stirred  it  up  to  open  revolt,  whenever  a  favourable 
opportunity  has  offered  itself.3  It  is  not  surprising  then  to 
learn  that  many  of  the  Christians  went  over  to  Islam,  to 
deliver  themselves  from  such  tyranny.4 

Ecclesiastical  oppression  of  a  rather  different  character 
is  said  to  have  been  responsible  for  the  conversion  of  the 
ancestors  of  a  small  community  of  about  4000  Southern 
Rumanians,  at  Noanta  in  the  Meglen  district  of  the  vilayet 
of  Salonika;  they  have  a  tradition  that  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  persuaded  the 
reigning  Sultan  that  only  the  Christians  who  spoke  Greek 
could  be  loyal  subjects  of  the  Turkish  empire ;   the  Sultan 

1  Gaultier  de  Leslie,  p.  137. 

1  A.  J.  Evans,  p.  267.  Similarly  Mackenzie  and  Irby  say  :  "In  most 
parts  of  Old  Serbia  the  idea  we  found  associated  with  a  bishop,  was  that  of 
a  person  who  carried  off  what  few  paras  the  Turks  had  left  "  (p.  258).  A 
similar  account  of  the  clergy  of  the  Greek  Church  is  given  by  a  writer  in  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  (tome  97,  p.  336),  who  narrates  the  following  story  : 
"  Au  debut  de  ce  siecle,  a  Tirnova,  un  certain  pope  du  nom  de  Joachim, 
adore  de  ses  ouailles,  deteste  de  son  eveque,  re<put  l'ordre,  un  jour,  de  faire 
la  corvee  du  fumier  dans  l'ecurie  episcopale.  II  se  rebiffa  :  aussitot  la 
valetaille  l'assaillit  a  coups  de  fourche.  Mais  notre  homme  etait  vigoureux  : 
il  se  debattit,  et,  laissant  sa  tunique  en  gage,  s'en  fut  tout  chaud  chez  le 
cadi.     Le  soleil  n'etait  pas  couche  qu'il  devenait  bon  Musulman." 

3  Pitzipios,  Seconde  Partie,  p.  87. 

*  Id.  Seconde  Partie,  p.  87.     Pichler,  p.  29. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  169 

thereupon  forbade  the  Christians  to  speak  anything  but 
Greek,  on  pain  of  having  their  tongues  cut  out ;  when  the 
news  of  this  reached  Noanta,  a  part  of  the  population  fled 
into  the  woods  and  founded  fresh  villages,  but  those  who 
were  left  behind  went  over  to  Islam,  with  their  bishop 
at  their  head,  in  order  thereby  to  retain  their  mother- 
tongue.1 

Though  the  mass  of  the  parish  clergy  were  innocent  of  the 
charges  brought  against  their  superiors,2  still  they  were  very 
ignorant  and  illiterate.  At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  there  were  said  to  be  hardly  twelve  persons  in  the 
whole  Turkish  dominions  thoroughly  skilled  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  ancient  Greek  language;  it  was  considered  a  great 
merit  in  the  clergy  to  be  able  to  read,  while  they  were  quite 
ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  the  words  of  their  service-books.3 

While  there  was  so  much  in  the  Christian  society  of  the 
time  to  repel,  there  was  much  in  the  character  and  life  of 
the  Turks  to  attract,  and  the  superiority  of  the  early  Otto- 
mans as  compared  with  the  degradation  of  the  guides  and 
teachers  of  the  Christian  Church  would  naturally  impress 
devout  minds  that  revolted  from  the  selfish  ambition, 
simony  and  corruption  of  the  Greek  ecclesiastics.  Christian 
writers  constantly  praise  these  Turks  for  the  earnestness  and 
intensity  of  their  religious  life ;  their  zeal  in  the  performance 
of  the  observances  prescribed  by  their  faith ;  the  outward 
decency  and  modesty  displayed  in  their  apparel  and  mode 
of  living ;  the  absence  of  ostentatious  display  and  the  sim- 
plicity of  life  observable  even  in  the  great  and  powerful.4 
The  annalist  of  the  embassy  from  the  Emperor  Leopold  I 
to  the  Ottoman  Porte  in  1665-1666,  especially  eulogises  the 
devoutness  and  regularity  of  the  Turks  in  prayer,  and  he 
even  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "  Nous  devons  dire  a  la  confusion 
des  Chretiens,  que  les  Turcs  temoignent  beaucoup  plus  de 
soin  et  de  zele  a  Texercice  de  leur  Religion  :  que  les  Cretiens 
n'en  font  paroitre  a  la  pratique  de  la  leur.  .  .  .  Mais  ce  qui 
passe  tout  ce  que  nous  experimentons  de  devot  entre  les 
Chretiens  :    c'est  que  pendant  le  terns  de  la  priere,  vous  ne 

1  Lazar,  p.  223.  2  Finlay,  vol.  iv.  pp.  153-4. 

3  Tournefort,  vol.  i.  p.  104.     Cf.  Pichler,  pp.  29,  31.     Spon,  vol.  i.  p.  44. 

4  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xiii.  (b) ;  fol.  xv.  (b) ;  fol.  xvii.  (b) ; 
fol.  xx.  (a).     Veniero,  pp.  32,  36.     Busbecq,  p.  174. 


170  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

voyez  pas  une  personne  distraite  de  ses  yeux  :  vous  n'en 
voyez  pas  une  qui  ne  soit  attachee  a  l'objet  de  sa  priere  : 
et  pas  une  qui  n'ait  toute  la  reverence  exterieure  pour  son 
Createur,  qu'on  peut  exiger  de  la  Creature."  * 

Even  the  behaviour  of  the  soldiery  receives  its  meed  of 
praise.  During  the  march  of  an  army  the  inhabitants  of 
the  country,  we  are  told  by  the  secretary  to  the  Embassy 
sent  by  Charles  II  to  the  Sultan,  had  no  complaints  to  make 
of  being  plundered  or  of  their  women  being  maltreated. 
All  the  taverns  along  the  line  of  march  were  shut  up  and 
sealed  two  or  three  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  army,  and 
no  wine  was  allowed  to  be  sold  to  the  soldiers  under  pain  of 
death.2 

Many  a  tribute  of  praise  is  given  to  the  virtues  of  the 
Turks  even  by  Christian  writers  who  bore  them  no  love; 
one  such  who  had  a  very  poor  opinion  of  their  religion,3 
speaks  of  them  as  follows  : — "  Even  in  the  dirt  of  the  Alcoran 
you  shall  find  some  jewels  of  Christian  Virtues ;  and  indeed 
if  Christians  will  but  diligently  read  and  observe  the  Laws 
and  Histories  of  the  Mahometans,  they  may  blush  to  see 
how  zealous  they  are  in  the  works  of  devotion,  piety,  and 
charity,  how  devout,  cleanly,  and  reverend  in  their  Mosques, 
how  obedient  to  their  Priest,  that  even  the  great  Turk 
himself  will  attempt  nothing  without  consulting  his  Mufti  ; 
how  careful  are  they  to  observe  their  hours  of  prayer  five 
times  a  day  wherever  they  are,  or  however  employed  ?  how 
constantly  do  they  observe  their  Fasts  from  morning  till 
night  a  whole  month  together ;  how  loving  and  charitable 
the  Muslemans  are  to  each  other,  and  how  careful  of  strangers 
may  be  seen  by  their  Hospitals,  both  for  the  Poor  and  for 
Travellers;  if  we  observe  their  Justice,  Temperance,  and 
other  moral  Vertues,  we  may  truly  blush  at  our  own  cold- 
ness, both  in  devotion  and  charity,  at  our  injustice,  intem- 
perance, and  oppression;  doubtless  these  Men  will  rise  up 
in  judgment  against  us ;   and  surely  their  devotion,  piety, 

1  Gaultier  de  Leslie,  pp.  180,  182. 

2  Rycaut,  vol.  i.  p.  689.     See  also  Georgieviz,  pp.  53-4,  and  Menavino, 

P-  73- 

3  Alexander  Ross,  p.  ix. ;    he  calls  the  Qur'an  a  "  gallimaufry  of  Errors 

(a  Brat  as  deformed  as  the  Parent,  and  as  full  of  Heresies,  as  his  scald  head 
was  of  scurf)," — "  a  hodg  podge  made  up  of  these  four  Ingredients.  1.  Of 
Contradictions.     2.  Of  Blasphemy.      3.  Of  ridiculous  Fables.      4.  Of  Lyes." 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  171 

and  works  of  mercy  are   main   causes   of   the  growth   of 
Mahometism." 

The  same  conclusion  is  drawn  by  a  modern  historian,1 
who  writes  : — "  We  find  that  many  Greeks  of  high  talent 
and  moral  character  were  so  sensible  of  the  superiority  of 
the  Mohammedans,  that  even  when  they  escaped  being 
drafted  into  the  Sultan's  household  as  tribute-children,  they 
voluntarily  embraced  the  faith  of  Mahomet.  The  moral 
superiority  of  Othoman  society  must  be  allowed  to  have  had 
as  much  weight  in  causing  these  conversions,  which  were 
numerous  in  the  fifteenth  century,  as  the  personal  ambition 
of  individuals." 

A  generation  that  has  watched  the  decay  of  the  Turkish 
power  in  Europe  and  the  successive  curtailment  of  its 
territorial  possessions,  and  is  accustomed  to  hearing  it 
spoken  of  as  the  "  sick  man,"  destined  to  a  speedy  dissolu- 
tion, must  find  it  difficult  to  realise  the  feelings  which  the 
Ottoman  empire  inspired  in  the  early  days  of  its  rise  in 
Europe.  The  rapid  and  widespread  success  of  the  Turkish 
arms  filled  men's  minds  with  terror  and  amazement.  One 
Christian  kingdom  after  another  fell  into  their  hands  : 
Bulgaria,  Servia,  Bosnia,  and  Hungary  yielded  up  their 
independence  as  Christian  states.  The  proud  Republic  of 
Venice  saw  one  possession  after  another  wrested  from  it, 
until  the  Lion  of  St.  Mark  held  sway  on  the  shores  of  the 
Adriatic  alone.  Even  the  safety  of  the  Eternal  City  itself 
was  menaced  by  the  capture  of  Otranto.  Christian  literature 
of  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  and  of  the  sixteenth 
centuries  is  full  of  direful  forebodings  of  the  fate  that 
threatened  Christian  Europe  unless  the  victorious  progress 
of  the  Turk  was  arrested ;  he  is  represented  as  a  scourge  in 
the  hand  of  God  for  the  punishment  of  the  sins  and  back- 
slidings  of  His  people,2  or  on  the  other  hand  as  the  unloosed 
power  of  the  Devil  working  for  the  destruction  of  Christianity 
under  the  hypocritical  guise  of  religion.  But — what  is 
most  important  to  notice  here — some  men  began  to  ask 
themselves,  "Is  it  possible  that  God  would  allow  the 
Muhammadans  to  increase  in  such  countless  numbers  with- 
out good  reason  ?     Is  it  conceivable  that  so  many  thousands 

1  Finlay,  vol.  v.  p.  29.  2  Schiltberger,  p.  96. 


172  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

are  to  be  damned  like  one  man  ?  How  can  such  multitudes 
be  opposed  to  the  true  faith  ?  since  truth  is  stronger  than 
error  and  is  more  loved  and  desired  by  all  men,  it  is  not 
possible  for  so  many  men  to  be  fighting  against  it.  How 
could  they  prevail  against  truth,  since  God  always  helps  and 
upholds  the  truth  ?  How  could  their  religion  so  marvel- 
lously increase,  if  built  upon  the  rotten  foundation  of  error?"1 
Such  thoughts,  we  are  told,  appealed  strongly  to  the  Christian 
peoples  that  lived  under  the  Turkish  rule,  and  with  especial 
force  to  the  unhappy  Christian  captives  who  watched  the 
years  drag  wearily  on  without  hope  of  release  or  respite  from 
their  misery.  Can  we  be  surprised  when  we  find  such  a 
one  asking  himself  ?  "  Surely  if  God  were  pleased  with  the 
faith  to  which  you  have  clung,  He  would  not  have  thus 
abandoned  you,  but  would  have  helped  you  to  gain  your 
freedom  and  return  to  it  again.  But  as  He  has  closed  every 
avenue  of  freedom  to  you,  perchance  it  is  His  pleasure  that 
you  should  leave  it  and  join  this  sect  and  be  saved  therein."  2 
The  Christian  slave  who  thus  describes  the  doubts  that 
arose  in  his  mind  as  the  slow-passing  years  brought  no  relief, 
doubtless  gives  expression  here  to  thoughts  that  suggested 
themselves  to  many  a  hapless  Christian  captive  with  over- 
whelming persistency,  until  at  last  he  broke  away  from  the 
ties  of  his  old  faith  and  embraced  Islam.  Many  who  would 
have  been  ready  to  die  as  martyrs  for  the  Christian  religion 
if  the  mythical  choice  between  the  Qur'an  and  the  sword  had 
been  offered  them,  felt  more  and  more  strongly,  after  long 
years  of  captivity,  the  influence  of  Muhammadan  thought 
and  practice,  and  humanity  won  converts  where  violence 
would  have  failed.3  For  though  the  lot  of  many  of  the 
Christian  captives  was  a  very  pitiable  one,  others  who  held 
positions  in  the  households  of  private  individuals,  were  often 
no  worse  off  than  domestic  servants  in  the  rest  of  Europe. 

1  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xii.  (b),  xiii.  (a). 

2  Id.  fol.  xxvii.  (a). 

3  "  Dum  corpora  exterius  fovendo  sub  pietatis  specie  non  occidit  : 
interius  fidem  auferendo  animas  sua  diabolica  astutia  occidere  intendit. 
Huius  rei  testimonium  innumerabilis  multitudo  fidelium  esse  potest. 
Quorum  multi  promptissimi  essent  pro  fide  Christi  et  suarum  animarum 
salute  in  fide  Christi  mori  :  quos  tamen  conservando  a  morte  corporali  :  et 
ductos  in  captivitatem  per  successum  temporis  suo  infectos  veneno  fidem 
Christi  turpiter  negare  facit."  Turchicae  Spurctiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  i. ;  cf. 
fol.  vi.  (a). 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  173 

As  organised  by  the  Muhammadan  Law,  slavery  was  robbed 
of  many  of  its  harshest  features,  nor  in  Turkey  at  least  does 
it  seem  to  have  been  accompanied  by  such  barbarities  and 
atrocities  as  in  the  pirate  states  of  Northern  Africa.     The 
slaves,  like  other  citizens,  had  their  rights,  and  it  is  even  said 
that  a  slave  might  summon  his  master  before  the  Qadi  for 
ill  usage,  and  that  if  he  alleged  that  their  tempers  were  so 
opposite,  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  agree,  the 
Qadi  could  oblige  his  master  to  sell  him.1     The  condition 
of  the   Christian   captives   naturally  varied   with   circum- 
stances and  their  own  capabilities  of  adapting  themselves 
to  a  life  of  hardship ;   the  aged,  the  priests  and  monks,  and 
those  of  noble  birth  suffered  most,  while  the  physician  and 
the  handicraftsman  received  more   considerate  treatment 
from  their  masters,  as  being  servants  that  best  repaid  the 
money    spent    upon    them.2    The    galley-slaves    naturally 
suffered  most  of  all,  indeed  the  kindest  treatment  could 
have  but  little  relieved  the  hardships  incident  to  such  an 
occupation.3     Further,  the  lot  of  the  slaves  who  were  state 
property  was  more  pitiable  than  that  of  those  who  had  been 
purchased  by  private  individuals.4    As  a  rule  they  were 
allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion;    in  the  state- 
prisons  at  Constantinople,  they  had  their  own  priests  and 
chapels,  and  the  clergy  were  allowed  to  administer  the  con- 
solations of  religion  to  the  galley-slaves.5    The  number  of 
the  Christian  slaves  who  embraced  Islam  was  enormous; 
some  few  cases  have  been  recorded  of  their  being  threatened 

1  Menavino,  p.  96.  John  Harris  :  Navigantium  atque  Itinerantium 
Bibliotheca,  vol.  ii.  p.  819.     (London,  1764.) 

2  "  Dieses  muss  man  den  Turken  nachsagen,  dass  sie  die  Diener  und 
Sclaven,  durch  deren  Fleiss  und  Bemuhung  sie  sich  einen  Nutzen  schaffen 
konnen,  sehr  wol  und  oft  besser,  als  die  Christian  die  ihrige,  halten  .  .  .  und 
wann  ein  Knecht  in  einer  Kunst  erfahren  ist,  gehet  ihm  nichts  anders  als 
die  Freyheit  ab,  ausser  welche  er  alles  andere  hat,  was  ein  freyer  Mensch 
sich  nur  wiinschen  kan."     (G.  C.  von  den  Driesch,  p.  132.) 

3  Sir  William  Stirling-Maxwell  says  of  these  :  "  The  poor  wretches  who 
tugged  at  the  oar  on  board  a  Turkish  ship  of  war  lived  a  life  neither  more 
nor  less  miserable  than  the  galley-slaves  under  the  sign  of  the  Cross.  Hard 
work,  hard  fare,  and  hard  knocks  were  the  lot  of  both.  Ashore,  a  Turkish 
or  Algerine  prison  was,  perhaps,  more  noisome  in  its  filth  and  darkness  than 
a  prison  at  Naples  or  Barcelona ;  but  at  sea,  if  there  were  degrees  of  misery, 
the  Christian  in  Turkish  chains  probably  had  the  advantage;  for  in  the 
Sultan's  vessels  the  oar-gang  was  often  the  property  of  the  captain,  and 
the  owner's  natural  tenderness  for  his  own  was  sometimes  supposed  to 
interfere  with  the  discharge  of  his  duty."     (Vol.  i.  pp.  102-3.) 

4  Gmelin,  p.  16.  6  Id.  p.  23. 


i74  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

and  ill-treated  for  the  very  purpose  of  inducing  them  to 
recant,  but  as  a  rule  the  masters  seldom  forced  them  to 
renounce  their  faith,1  and  put  the  greatest  pressure  upon 
them  during  the  first  years  of  their  captivity,  after  which 
they  let  them  alone  to  follow  their  own  faith.2  The  majority 
of  the  converted  slaves  therefore  changed  their  religion  of 
their  own  free  choice;  and  when  the  Christian  embassies 
were  never  sure  from  day  to  day  that  some  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen  that  had  accompanied  them  to  Constantinople 
as  domestic  servants,  might  not  turn  Turk,3  it  can  easily 
be  understood  that  slaves  who  had  lost  all  hope  of  return 
to  their  native  country,  and  found  little  in  their  surroundings 
to  strengthen  and  continue  the  teachings  of  their  earlier 
years,  would  yield  to  the  influences  that  beset  them  and 
would  feel  few  restraints  to  hinder  them  from  entering  a  new 
society  and  a  new  religion.  An  English  traveller  4  of  the 
seventeenth  century  has  said  of  them  :  "  Few  ever  return 
to  their  native  country;  and  fewer  have  the  courage  and 
constancy  of  retaining  the  Christian  Faith,  in  which  they 
were  educated;  their  education  being  but  mean,  and  their 
knowledge  but  slight  in  the  principles  and  grounds  of  it; 
whereof  some  are  frightened  into  Turcism  by  their  impatience 

1  John  Harris:  Navigantium  atque  Itinerantium  Bibliotheca,  vol.  ii.p.  810. 

2  "  Die  ersten  Jahre  sind  fur  solche  ungliickliche  Leute  am  besch- 
wehrlichsten,  absonderlich  vvenn  sie  noch  jung,  weil  die  Turken  selbige 
entweder  mit  Schmeicheln,  oder,  wann  dieses  nichts  verfangen  will,  mit 
der  Scharfe  zu  ihren  Glauben  zu  bringen  suchen ;  wann  aber  dieser  Sturm 
iiberwunden,  wird  man  finden,  dass  die  Gefangenschaft  nirgend  ertraglicher 
als  bey  den  Turken  seye."  (G.  C.  von  den  Driesch,  p.  132.)  Moreover 
Georgieviz  says  that  those  who  persevered  in  the  Christian  faith  were  set 
free  after  a  certain  fixed  period.  "  Si  in  Christiana  fide  perseveraverint, 
statuitur  certum  tempus  serviendi,  quo  elapso  liberi  hunt  .  .  .  Verum 
illis  qui  nostram  religionem  abiurarunt,  nee  certum  tempus  est  serviendi, 
ned  ullum  ius  in  patriam  redeundi,  spes  libertatis  solummodo  pendet  a 
domini  arbitrio  "  (p.  87).  Similarly  Menavino,  p.  65.  Cantacuzenos  gives 
this  period  as  seven  years  : — "  Grata  e  la  compagnia  che  essi  fanno  a  gli 
schiavi  loro,  percioche  Maumetto  gli  ha  fra  l'altre  cose  comandato  che  egli 
non  si  possa  tener  in  servitu  uno  schiavo  piu  che  sette  anni,  et  percio  nessuno 
o  raro  e  colui  che  a  tal  comandamento  voglia  contrafare  "  (p.  128). 

3  "  Fromme  Christen,  die  nach  der  Tiirkei  oder  in  andere  muhame- 
danische  Lander  kamen,  hatten  Anlass  genug  zur  Trauer  iiber  die  Haufigkeit 
des  Abfalls  ihrer  Glaubensgenossen,  und  besonders  die  Schrif ten  der  Ordens- 
geistlichen  sind  voll  von  solchen  Klagen.  Bei  den  Sclaven  konnte  sich 
immer  noch  ein  Gefiihl  des  Mitleids  dem  der  Missbilligung  beimischen,  aber 
oft  genug  musste  man  die  bittersten  Erfahrungen  auch  an  freien  Landsleuten 
machen.  Die  christlichen  Gesandten  waren  keinen  Tag  sicher,  ob  ihnen 
nicht  Leute  von  ihrem  Gefolge  davon  liefen,  und  man  that  gut  daran,  den 
Tag  nicht  vor  dem  Abend  zu  loben."  (Gmelin,  p.  22.)  Cf.  Von  den 
Driesch,  p.  161.  4  Thomas  Smith,  pp.  144-5. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN  EUROPE  175 

and  too  deep  resentments  of  the  hardships  of  the  servitude ; 
others  are  enticed  by  the  blandishments  and  flatteries  of 
pleasure  the  Mahometan  Law  allows,  and  the  allurements 
they  have  of  making  their  condition  better  and  more  easy 
by  a  change  of  their  Religion ;  having  no  hope  left  of  being 
redeemed,  they  renounce  their  Saviour  and  their  Christianity, 
and  soon  forget  their  original  country,  and  are  no  longer 
looked  upon  as  strangers,  but  pass  for  natives." 

Much  of  course  depended  upon  the  individual  character 
of  the  different  Christian  slaves  themselves.  The  anony- 
mous writer,  so  often  quoted  above,  whose  long  captivity 
made  him  so  competent  to  speak  on  their  condition,  divides 
them  into  three  classes  : — first,  those  who  passed  their  days 
in  all  simplicity,  not  caring  to  trouble  themselves  to  learn 
anything  about  the  religion  of  their  masters;  for  them  it 
was  enough  to  know  that  the  Turks  were  infidels,  and  so, 
as  far  as  their  captive  condition  and  their  yoke  of  slavery 
allowed,  they  avoided  having  anything  to  do  with  them 
and  their  religious  worship,  fearing  lest  they  should  be  led 
astray  by  their  errors,  and  striving  to  observe  the  Christian 
faith  as  far  as  their  knowledge  and  power  went.  The  second 
class  consisted  of  those  whose  curiosity  led  them  to  study 
and  investigate  the  doings  of  the  Turks  :  if,  by  the  help  of 
God,  they  had  time  enough  to  dive  into  their  secrets,  and 
understanding  enough  for  the  investigation  of  them  and 
light  of  reason  to  find  the  interpretation  thereof,  they  not 
only  came  out  of  the  trial  unscathed,  but  had  their  own 
faith  strengthened.  The  third  class  includes  those  who, 
examining  the  Muslim  religion  without  due  caution,  fail  to 
dive  into  its  depths  and  find  the  interpretation  of  it  and  so 
are  deceived;  believing  the  errors  of  the  Turks  to  be  the 
truth,  they  lose  their  own  faith  and  embrace  the  false 
religion  of  the  Muslims,  hereby  not  only  compassing  their 
own  destruction,  but  setting  a  bad  example  to  others  :  of 
such  men  the  number  is  infinite.1 

Conversion  to  Islam  did  not,  as  some  writers  have  affirmed, 
release  the  slave  from  his  captivity  and  make  him  a  free  man,2 

1  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xxxv.  (a). 

2  M.    d'Ohsson,    vol.    iii.    p.    133.     Georgieviz,    p.    87    (quoted   above). 
Menavino,  p.  95. 


176  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

for  emancipation  was  solely  at  the  discretion  of  the 
master;  who  indeed  often  promised  to  set  any  slave  free, 
without  the  payment  of  ransom,  if  only  he  would  embrace 
Islam ; x  but,  on  the  other  hand,  would  also  freely  emancipate 
the  Christian  slave,  even  though  he  had  persevered  in  his 
religion,  provided  he  had  proved  himself  a  faithful  servant, 
and  would  make  provision  for  his  old  age.2 

There  were  many  others  who,  like  the  Christian  slaves, 
separated  from  early  surroundings  and  associations,  found 
themselves  cut  loose  from  old  ties  and  thrown  into  the  midst 
of  a  society  animated  by  social  and  religious  ideals  of  an 
entirely  novel  character.  The  crowds  of  Christian  work- 
men that  came  wandering  from  the  conquered  countries 
in  the  fifteenth  century  to  Adrianople  and  other  Turkish 
cities  in  search  of  employment,  were  easily  persuaded  to 
settle  there  and  adopt  the  faith  of  Islam.3  Similarly  the 
Christian  families  that  Muhammad  II  transported  from 
conquered  provinces  in  Europe  into  Asia  Minor,4  may  well 
have  become  merged  into  the  mass  of  the  Muslim  population 
by  almost  imperceptible  degrees,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
Armenians  carried  away  into  Persia  by  Shah  'Abbas  I 
(1587-1629),  most  of  whom  appear  to  have  passed  over  to 
Islam  in  the  second  generation.5 

During  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  there 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  decay  of  the  missionary  spirit 
among  the  Turks,  but  the  latter  years  of  the  reign  of  Sultan 
'Abd  al-Hamld  witnessed  a  renewed  interest  in  Muslim 
propaganda,  and  Turkish  newspapers  began  to  record 
instances  of  conversion.  Among  the  most  noteworthy  of 
such  converts  were  some  eighteen  amirs  of  the  princely 
family  of  Shihab  in  Mount  Lebanon,  which  had  been 
Christian  for  about  a  century;  they  are  said  to  claim 
descent  from  the  Quraysh,  and  the  Turks  made  every  effort 
to  bring  them  back  to  the  fold  of  Islam ;  those  who  became 

1  Von  den  Driesch,  p.  250. 

2  Id.  p.  131-2. 

3  Turchicae  Spurcitiae  Suggillatio,  fol.  xi. 

4  Hertzberg,  p.  621. 

6  "  The  old  People  dying,  the  young  ones  generally  turn  Mahumetans  : 
so  that  now  (1655)  you  can  hardly  meet  with  two  Christian  Armenians  in  all 
those  fair  Plains,  which  their  fathers  were  sent  to  manure."  Tavernier 
(1),  p.  16. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  EUROPE  177 

Muslims  were  appointed  to  lucrative  posts  in  the  Turkish 

civil  service.1 

In  the  following  pages  it  is  proposed  to  give  a  more 
detailed  and  particular  account  of  the  spread  of  Islam  among 
the  Christian  populations  of  Albania,  Servia,  Bosnia  and 
Crete,  as  the  history  of  each  of  these  countries  after  its  con- 
quest by  the  Ottomans  presents  some  special  features  of 
interest  in  the  history  of  the  propagation  of  Islam. 

The  Albanians,  with  the  exception  of  some  settlements  in 
Greece,2  inhabit  the  mountainous  country  that  stretches 
along  the  east  shore  of  the  Adriatic  from  Montenegro  to  the 
Gulf  of  Arta.  They  form  one  of  the  oldest  and  purest- 
blooded  races  in  Europe  and  are  said  to  belong  to  the 
Pelasgic  branch  of  the  Aryan  stock. 

Their  country  was  first  invaded  by  the  Turks  in  1387,  but 
the  Turkish  forces  soon  had  to  withdraw,  and  the  authority 
of  the  Sultan  was  recognised  for  the  first  time  in  1423. 
For  a  short  period  Albania  regained  its  independence  under 
George  Kastriota,  who  is  better  known  under  his  Muhamma- 
dan  name  of  Scanderbeg  or  Sikandarbeg.  Recent  investi- 
gations have  established  the  falsity  of  the  romantic 
fictions  that  had  gathered  round  the  story  of  his  early 
days— how  that  as  a  boy  he  had  been  surrendered  as  a 
hostage  to  the  Turks,  had  been  brought  up  among  them  as  a 
Muslim  and  had  won  the  special  favour  of  the  Sultan.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  days  of  his  youth  were  passed  in  his  native 
mountains  and  his  warfare  with  the  Turks  began  with  the 
victory  gained  over  them  in  1444;  for  more  than  twenty 
years  he  maintained  a  vigorous  and  successful  resistance  to 
their  invading  forces,  but  after  his  death  in  1467,  the  Turks 
began  again  to  take  possession  of  Albania.  Kriiya,  the 
capital  of  the  Kastriot  dynasty,  fell  into  their  hands  eleven 
years  later,  and  from  this  date  there  appears  to  have  been 
no  organised  resistance  of  the  whole  country,  though  revolts 
were  frequent  and  the  subjection  of  the  country  was  never 
complete.  Some  of  the  sea-port  towns  held  out  much 
longer;  Durazzo  was  captured  in  1501,  while  Antivari,  the 
northernmost  point  of  the  sea-coast  of  Albania,  did  not 

1  H.  H.  Jessup:  Fifty-three  Years  in  Syria,  vol.  ii.  p.  658.   (New  York,  1910.) 

2  For  a  list  of  these,  see  Finlay,  vol.  vi.  pp.  28-9. 

N 


i;8  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

surrender  until  1571.  The  terms  of  capitulation  were  that 
the  city  should  retain  its  old  laws  and  magistrature,  that 
there  should  be  free  and  public  exercise  of  the  Christian 
religion,  that  the  churches  and  chapels  should  remain 
uninjured  and  might  be  rebuilt  if  they  fell  into  decay;  that 
the  citizens  should  retain  all  their  movable  and  immovable 
property  and  should  not  be  burdened  by  any  additional 
taxation. 

The  Albanians  under  Turkish  rule  appear  always  to  have 
maintained  a  kind  of  semi-autonomy,  and  the  several  tribes 
and  clans  remained  as  essentially  independent  as  they  were 
before  the  conquest.  Though  vassals  of  the  Sultans,  they 
would  not  brook  the  interference  of  Turkish  officials  in  their 
internal  administration,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
the  Turkish  Government  has  never  been  able  to  appoint  or 
confirm  any  provincial  governor  who  was  not  a  native  of 
Albania,  and  had  not  already  established  his  influence  by 
his  arms,  policy  or  connections.1  Their  racial  pride  is 
intense,  and  to  the  present  day,  the  Albanian,  if  asked  what 
he  is,  will  call  himself  a  Skipetar,2  before  saying  whether 
he  is  a  Christian  or  a  Muhammadan — a  very  remarkable 
instance  of  national  feeling  obliterating  the  fierce  distinction 
between  these  two  religions  that  so  forcibly  obtrudes  itself 
in  the  rest  of  the  Ottoman  empire.  The  Christian  and 
Muhammadan  Albanians  alike,  just  as  they  speak  the  same 
language,  so  do  they  cherish  the  same  traditions,  and 
observe  the  same  manners  and  customs ;  and  pride  in  their 
common  nationality  has  been  too  strong  a  bond  to  allow 
differences  of  religious  belief  to  split  the  nation  into  separate 
communities  on  this  basis.3     Side  by  side  they  served  in  the 

1  Leake,  p.  250. 

2  The  name  by  which  the  Albanians  always  call  themselves,  lit.  rock- 
dwellers. 

8  One  of  themselves,  an  Albanian  Christian,  speaking  of  the  enmity 
existing  between  the  Christians  and  Muhammadans  of  Bulgaria,  says  : 
"  Aber  fur  Albanien  liegen  die  Dachen  ganz  anders.  Die  Muselmanner 
sind  Albanesen,  wie  die  Christen ;  sie  sprechen  dieselbe  Sprache,  sie  haben 
dieselben  Sitten,  sie  folgen  denselben  Gebrauchen,  sie  haben  dieselben 
Traditionen ;  sie  und  die  Christen  haben  sich  niemals  gehasst,  zwischen 
ihnen  herrscht  keine  Jahrhunderte  alte  Feindschaft.  Der  Unterschied  der 
Religion  war  niemals  ein  zu  einer  systematischen  Trennung  treibendes 
Motiv;  Muselmanner  und  Christen  haben  stets,  mit  wenigen  Ausnahmen, 
auf  gleichem  Fusse  gelebt,  sich  der  gleichen  Rechte  erfreuend,  dieselben 
Pfiichten  erfiillend."  (Wassa  Effendi  :  Albanien  und  die  Albanesen,  p.  59.) 
(Berlin,  1879.) 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  EUROPE  179 

irregular  troops,  which  soon  after  the  Turkish  conquest 
became  the  main  dependence  of  the  government  in  all  its 
internal  administration,  and  both  classes  found  the  same 
ready  employment  in  the  service  of  the  local  pashas,  being 
accounted  the  bravest  soldiers  in  the  empire.  Christian 
Albanians  served  in  the  Ottoman  army  in  the  Crimean  War,1 
and  though  they  have  perhaps  been  a  little  more  quiet  and 
agricultural  than  their  Muslim  fellow-countrymen,  still  the 
difference  has  been  small  :  they  have  always  retained  their 
arms  and  military  habits,  have  always  displayed  the  same 
fierce,  proud,  untameable  spirit,  and  been  animated  with  the 
same  intense  national  feeling  as  their  brethren  who  had 
embraced  the  creed  of  the  Prophet.2 

The  consideration  of  these  facts  is  of  importance  in  tracing 
the  spread  of  Islam  in  Albania,  for  it  appears  to  have  been 
propagated  very  gradually  by  the  people  of  the  country 
themselves,  and  not  under  pressure  of  foreign  influences. 
The  details  that  we  possess  of  this  movement  are  very 
meagre,  as  the  history  of  Albania  from  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century  to  the  rise  of  'AH  Pasha  three  hundred 
years  later,  is  almost  a  blank;  what  knowledge  we  have, 
therefore,  of  the  slow  but  continuous  accession  of  converts 
to  Islam  during  this  period,  is  derived  from  the  ecclesiastical 
chronicles  of  the  various  dioceses,3  and  the  reports  sent  in 
from  time  to  time  to  the  Pope  and  the  Congregatio  de 
Propaganda  Fide.4  But  it  goes  without  saying  that  the 
very  nature  of  these  sources  gives  the  information  derived 
from  them  the  stamp  of  imperfection — especially  in  the 
matter  of  the  motives  assigned  for  conversion.  For  an 
ecclesiastic  of  those  times  to  have  even  entertained  the 
possibility  of  a  conversion  to  Islam  from  genuine  conviction 
— much  less  have  openly  expressed  such  an  opinion  in 
writing  to  his  superiors— is  well-nigh  inconceivable. 

1  Finlay,  vol.  v.  p.  46. 

2  Clark,  pp.  175-7.  The  Mirdites,  who  are  very  fanatical  Roman 
Catholics  (in  the  diocese  of  Alessio),  will  not  suffer  a  Muhammadan  to  live 
in  their  mountains,  and  no  member  of  their  tribe  has  ever  abjured  his  faith  ; 
were  any  Mirdite  to  attempt  to  do  so,  he  would  certainly  be  put  to  death, 
unless  he  succeeded  in  making  good  his  escape  from  Albania.  (Hecquard  : 
Histoire  de  la  Haute  Albanie,  p.  224.) 

3  Published  in  Farlati's  Illyricum  Sacrum. 

4  Alessandro  Comuleo,  1593.  Bizzi,  1610.  Marco  Crisio,  1651.  F.a 
Bonaventura  di  S.  Antonio,  1652.     Zmaievich,  1703. 


i8o  THE  PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

During  the  sixteenth  century,  Islam  appears  to  have  made 
but  little  progress,  though  the  tide  of  conversion  had  already 
set  in.  In  1610  the  Christian  population  exceeded  the 
Muhammadan  in  the  proportion  of  ten  to  one,1  and  as  most 
of  the  villages  were  inhabited  by  Christians,  with  a  very 
small  admixture  of  Muhammadans,2  the  conversions  appear 
to  have  been  more  frequent  in  the  large  towns.  In  Antivari, 
for  example,  while  many  Christians  elected  to  emigrate  into 
the  neighbouring  Christian  countries,  the  majority  of  those 
who  remained,  both  high-born  and  low,  went  over  gradually 
to  the  Muslim  faith,  so  that  the  Christian  population  grew 
less  and  less  day  by  day.3  As  the  number  of  accessions  to 
Islam  increased,  churches  were  converted  into  mosques — 
a  measure  which,  though  contrary  to  the  terms  of  the 
capitulation,  seems  justified  by  the  change  in  the  religion 
of  the  people.4  In  1610  two  collegiate  churches  only  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  the  Latin  Christians,  but  these 
appear  to  have  sufficed  for  the  needs  of  the  community ; 5 
what  this  amounted  to  can  only  roughly  be  guessed  from  the 
words  of  Marco  Bizzi :  "  There  are  about  600  houses  inhabited 
indiscriminately  by  Muhammadans  and  Christians — both 
Latin  and  Schismatics  (i.e.  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church)  : 
the  number  of  the  Muhammadans  is  a  little  in  excess  of 
the  Christians,  and  that  of  the  Latins  in  excess  of  the 
Schismatics." 

In  the  accounts  we  have  of  the  social  relations  between 
the  Christians  and  the  Muslims,  and  in  the  absence  of  any 
sharp  line  of  demarcation  between  the  two  communities, 
we  find  some  clue  to  the  manner  in  which  Muhammadan 
influences  gradually  gained  converts  from  among  the 
Christian  population  in  proportion  as  the  vigour  and  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  Church  declined. 

1  Bizzi,  fol.  60,  b.       2  Bizzi,  fol.  35,  a.        3  Farlati,  vol.  vii.  pp.  104,  107. 

4  It  is  also  complained  that  the  Archbishop's  palace  was  appropriated 
by  the  Muhammadans,  but  it  had  been  left  unoccupied  for  eight  years,  as 
Archbishop  Ambrosius  (flor.  1 579-1 598)  had  found  it  prudent  to  go  into 
exile,  having  attacked  Islam  "  with  more  fervour  than  caution,  inveighing 
against  Muhammad  and  damning  his  Satanic  doctrines."  (Farlati,  vol. 
vii.  p.  107.) 

6  Bizzi,  fol.  9.  where  he  says,  "  E  comunicai  quella  mattina  quasi  tutta 
la  Christianita  latina."  From  a  comparison  with  statistics  given  by 
Zmaievich  (fol.  227)  I  would  hazard  the  conjecture  that  the  Latin  Christian 
community  at  this  time  amounted  to  rather  over  a  thousand  souls. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  181 

It  had  become  very  common  for  Christian  parents  to 
give  their  daughters  in  marriage  to  Muhammadans,  and  for 
Christian  women  to  make  no  objection  to  such  unions.1 
The  male   children   born   of  these  mixed  marriages   were 
brought  up  as  Musalmans,  but  the  girls  were  allowed  to 
follow  the  religion  of  their  mother.2     Such  permission  was 
rendered  practically  ineffective  by  the  action  of  the  Christian 
ecclesiastics,  who  ordered  the  mothers  to  be  excluded  from 
the  churches  and  from  participation  in  the  sacraments ;  3 
and    consequently    (though   the   parish   priests    often    dis- 
regarded the  commands  of  their  superiors)  many  of  these 
women  embraced  the  faith  of  their  husbands.     But  even 
then  they  kept  up  a  superstitious  observance  of  the  rite  of 
baptism,   which  was  supposed  to  be  a  sovereign  specific 
against  leprosy,  witches  and  wolves,4  and  Christian  priests 
were  found  ready  to  pander  to  this  superstition  for  any 
Muhammadan  woman  who   wished  to   have  her  children 
baptised.5     This  good  feeling  between  the  members  of  the 
two  religions  6  is  similarly  illustrated  by  the  attendance  of 
Muhammadans  at   the  festivals   of  Christian  saints ;    e.g. 
Marco  Bizzi  says  that  on  the  feast-day  of  St.  Elias  (for  whom 
the  Albanians  appear  to  have  had  a  special  devotion)  there 
were   as   many   Muhammadans   present   in   the   church   as 
Christians.7     Even  to  the   present   day  we   are  told  that 
Albanian  Muhammadans  revere  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the 
Christian   saints,   and   make   pilgrimages  to   their  shrines, 

1  Bizzi,  fol.  27,  b ;   38,  b. 

2  Veniero,  fol.  34.  This  was  also  the  custom  in  some  villages  of  Albania 
as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  see  W.  M.  Leake  :  Travels 
in  Northern  Greece,  vol.  i.  p.  49.  (London,  1835)  :  "In  some  villages, 
Mahometans  are  married  to  Greek  women,  the  sons  are  educated  as  Turks, 
and  the  daughters  as  Christians;  and  pork  and  mutton  are  eaten  at  the 
same  table." 

3  Bizzi,  fol.  38,  b.     Farlati,  torn.  vii.  p.  158. 

4  Bizzi,  fol.  10,  b.     Veniero,  fol.  34. 

5  Shortly  after  Marco  Bizzi's  arrival  at  Antivari  a  Muhammadan  lady 
of  high  rank  wished  to  have  her  child  baptised  by  the  Archbishop  himself, 
who  tells  us  that  she  complained  bitterly  to  one  of  the  leading  Christians  of 
the  city  that  "  io  non  mi  fossi  degnato  di  far  a  lei  questo  piacere,  il  qual 
quotidianamente  vien  fatto  dai  miei  preti  a  richiesta  di  qualsivoglia  plebeo  " 
(fol.  10,  b). 

6  For  modern  instances  of  the  harmonious  relations  subsisting  between 
the  followers  of  the  two  faiths  living  together  in  the  same  village,  see 
Hyacinthe  Hecquard  :  Histoire  et  description  de  la  Haute  Albanie  (pp. 
153,  162,  200).     (Paris,  1858.) 

7  Bizzi,  fol.  38,  a. 


182  THE  PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

while  Christians  on  the  other  hand  resort  to  the  tombs  of 
Muslim  saints  for  the  cure  of  ailments  or  in  fulfilment  of 
vows.1  In  the  town  of  Calevacci,  where  there  were  sixty 
Christian  and  ten  Muhammadan  households,  the  followers 
of  the  Prophet  contributed  towards  the  support  of  the  parish 
priest,  as  the  majority  of  them  had  Christian  wives.2  Under 
such  circumstances  it  is  hardly  surprising  to  learn  that  many 
openly  professed  Islam,  while  satisfying  their  consciences 
by  saying  that  they  professed  Christianity  in  their  hearts.3 
Marco  Bizzi  has  three  explanations  to  offer  for  such  a  lapse — 
the  attraction  of  worldly  advantage,  the  desire  to  avoid  the 
payment  of  tribute,  and  the  want  of  a  sufficiently  large 
number  of  intelligent  clergy  to  supply  the  spiritual  needs  of 
the  country.4  Conversions  are  frequently  ascribed  to  the 
pressure  of  the  burden  of  taxation  imposed  upon  the  Chris- 
tians, and  whole  villages  are  said  to  have  apostatised  to 
avoid  payment  of  the  tribute.  As  no  details  are  given,  it 
is  impossible  to  judge  whether  there  was  really  sufficient 
ground  for  the  complaint,  or  whether  this  was  not  the 
apology  for  their  conduct  alleged  by  the  renegades  in  order 
to  make  some  kind  of  excuse  to  their  former  co-religionists — 
or  indeed  an  exaggeration  on  the  part  of  ecclesiastics  to 
whom  a  genuine  conversion  to  Islam  on  rational  grounds 
seemed  an  absolute  impossibility.  A  century  later  (in  1703) 
the  capitation-tax  was  six  reals  a  head  for  each  male  and 
this  (with  the  exception  of  a  tax,  termed  sciataraccio,  of 
three  reals  a  year)  was  the  only  burden  imposed  on  the 
Christians  exclusively.5  Men  must  have  had  very  little 
attachment  to  their  religion  to  abandon  it  merely  in  order  to 
be  quit  of  so  slight  a  penalty,  and  with  no  other  motive; 
and  the  very  existence  of  so  large  a  body  of  Christians  in 
Albania  at  the  present  time  shows  that  the  burden  could  not 
have  been  so  heavy  as  to  force  them  into  apostasy  without 
any  other  alternative. 

If  only  we  had  something  more  than  vague  general  com- 
plaints against  the  "  Turkish  tyranny,"  we  should  be  better 
able  to   determine  how  far  this  could  have  had  such  a 

1  Garnett,  p.  267.  2  Bizzi,  fol.  36,  b. 

3  Id.  fol.  38,  b. ;   37,  a.  4  Bizzi,  fol.  38,  b;  61,  a;   37,  a;  33,  b. 

5  Zmaievich,  fol.  5.  The  Venetian  real  in  the  eighteenth  century  was 
equal  to  a  Turkish  piastre.     (Businello,  p.  94.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  183 

preponderating  influence  as  is  ascribed  to  it  :  but  the  evid- 
ence alleged  seems  hardly  to  warrant  such  a  conclusion.  The 
vicious  practice  followed  by  the  Ottoman  Court  of  selling 
posts  in  the  provinces  to  the  highest  bidder  and  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  tenure  of  such  posts,  often  resulted  in  the 
occupants  trying  to  amass  as  large  a  fortune  as  possible  by 
extortions  of  every  kind.  But  such  burdens  are  said  to 
have  weighed  as  heavily  on  Muhammadans  as  Christians.1 
Though  certainly  an  avaricious  and  unjust  official  may  have 
found  it  easier  to  oppress  the  Christians  than  the  Muslims, 
especially  when  the  former  were  convicted  of  treasonable 
correspondence  with  the  Venetians  and  other  Christian 
states  and  were  suspected  of  a  wish  to  revolt. 

However  this  may  have  been,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
of  the  influence  exerted  by  the  zealous  activity  and  vigorous 
life  of  Islam  in  the  face  of  the  apathetic  and  ignorant 
Christian  clergy.  If  Islam  in  Albania  had  many  such 
exponents  as  the  Mulla,  whose  sincerity,  courtesy  and 
friendliness  are  praised  by  Marco  Bizzi,  with  whom  he  used 
to  discuss  religious  questions,  it  may  well  have  made  its 
way.2  The  majority  of  the  Christian  clergy  appear  to  have 
been  wholly  unlettered  :  most  of  them,  though  they  could 
read  a  little,  did  not  know  how  to  write,  and  were  so  ignorant 
of  the  duties  of  their  sacred  calling  that  they  could  not  even 
repeat  the  formula  of  absolution  by  heart.3  Though  they  had 
to  recite  the  mass  and  other  services  in  Latin,  there  were 
very  few  who  could  understand  any  of  it,  as  they  were 
ignorant  of  any  language  but  their  mother  tongue,  and  they 
had  only  a  vague,  traditionary  knowledge  of  the  truths  of 
their  religion.4  Marco  Bizzi  considered  the  inadequate 
episcopate  of  the  country  responsible  for  these  evils,  as  for 
the  small  numbers  of  the  clergy,  and  their  ignorance  of 
their  sacred  calling,  and  for  the  large  number  of  Christians 
who  grew  old  and  even  died  without  being  confirmed,  and 
apostatised    almost    everywhere ; 5    and    unless    this    were 

1  Bizzi,  fol.  12-13.     Zmaievich,  fol.  5.  2  Bizzi,  fol.  10-11. 

3  Id.  fol.  31,  b.  *  Id.  fol.  60,  b. 

5  Id.  fol.  33,  b.  "  Qui  deriva  il  puoco  numero  de  Sacerdoti  in  quelle 
parti  e  la  puoca  loro  intelligenza  in  quel  mestiero;  il  gran  numero  de' 
Christiani,  che  invecchiano,  et  anco  morono  senza  il  sacramento  della 
Confermatione  et  apostatano  della  fede  quasi  per  tutto," 


184  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

remedied  he  prophesied  a  rapid  decay  of  Christianity  in  the 
country.1  Several  priests  were  also  accused  of  keeping 
concubines,  and  of  drunkenness.2 

It  may  here  be  observed  that  the  Albanian  priests  were 
not  the  repositories  of  the  national  aspirations  and  ideals, 
as  were  the  clergy  of  the  Orthodox  Church  in  other  provinces 
of  the  Turkish  empire,  who  in  spite  of  their  ignorance  kept 
alive  among  their  people  that  devotion  to  the  Christian 
faith  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  national  life  of  the 
Greeks.3  On  the  contrary,  the  Albanians  cherished  a 
national  feeling  that  was  quite  apart  from  religious  belief, 
and  with  regard  to  the  Turks,  considered,  in  true  feudal 
spirit,  that  as  they  were  the  masters  of  the  country  they 
ought  to  be  obeyed  whatever  commands  they  gave.4 

There  is  a  curious  story  of  conversion  which  is  said  to 
have  taken  place  owing  to  a  want  of  amicable  relations 
between  a  Christian  priest  and  his  people,  as  follows  : 
"  Many  years  since,  when  all  the  country  was  Christian, 
there  stood  in  the  city  of  Scutari  a  beautiful  image  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  to  whose  shrine  thousands  flocked  every  year 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  offer  their  gifts,  perform 
their  devotions,  and  be  healed  of  their  infirmities.  For 
some  cause  or  other,  however,  it  fell  out  that  there  was 
dissension  between  the  priest  and  the  people,  and  one  day 
the  latter  came  to  the  church  in  great  crowds,  declaring 
that  unless  the  priest  yielded  to  them  they  would  then  and 
there  abjure  the  faith  of  Christ  and  embrace  in  its  stead  that 
of  Muhammad.  The  priest,  whether  right  or  wrong,  still 
remaining  firm,  his  congregation  tore  the  rosaries  and  crosses 
from  their  necks,  trampled  them  under  their  feet,  and  going 
to  the  nearest  mosque,  were  received  by  the  Mollah  into  the 
fold  of  the  True  Believers."  5 

Through  the  negligence  and  apathy  of  the  Christian  clergy 

1  "  Se  1' Albania  non  ricevera  qualche  maggior  agiuto  in  meno  di  anni 
andera  a  male  quasi  tutta  quella  Christianita  per  il  puoco  numero  dei 
Vescovi  e  dei  Sacerdoti  di  qualche  intelligenza."     (Id.  fol.  6i,  a.) 

2  Id.  fol.  36,  a.     Id.  fol.  64,  b. 

3  Finlay,  vol.  v.  pp.  153-4.     Clark,  p.  290. 

4  "  E  quei  miseri  hanno  fermata  la  conscientia  in  creder  di  non  peccar 
per  simil  coniuntioni  (i.e.  the  giving  of  Christian  girls  in  marriage  to 
Muhammadans)  per  esser  i  turchi  signori  del  paese,  e  che  pero  non  si  possa, 
ne  devea  far  altro  che  obbedirli  quando  comandano  qualsivoglia  cosa." 
^Bizzi,  fol.  38,  b.)  5  Garnett,  p.  268. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  EUROPE  185 

many  abuses  and  irregularities  had  been  allowed  to  creep 
into  the  Christian  society;  in  one  of  which,  namely  the 
practice  of  contracting  marriages  without  the  sanction  of 
the  Church  or  any  religious  ceremony,  we  find  an  approxi- 
mation to  the  Muhammadan  law,  which  makes  marriage 
a  civil  contract.  In  order  to  remedy  this  evil,  the  husband 
and  wife  were  to  be  excluded  from  the  Church,  until  they 
had  conformed  to  the  ecclesiastical  law  and  gone  through 
the  service  in  the  regular  manner.1 

In  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  social 
conditions  and  other  factors,  indicated  above,  bore  fruit 
abundantly,  and  the  numbers  of  the  Christian  population 
began  rapidly  to  decline.  In  the  brief  space  of  thirty  years, 
between  1620  and  1650,  about  300,000  Albanians  are  said 
to  have  gone  over  to  Islam.2  In  1624  there  were  only 
2000  Catholics  in  the  whole  diocese  of  Antivari,  and  in 
the  city  itself  only  one  church;  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  even  this  church  was  no  longer  used  for  Christian 
worship,  as  there  were  only  two  families  of  Roman 
Catholics  left.3  In  the  whole  country  generally,  the 
majority  of  the  Christian  community  in  1651  was  com- 
posed of  women,  as  the  male  population  had  apostatised  in 
such  large  numbers  to  Islam.4  Matters  were  still  worse  at 
the  close  of  the  century,  the  Catholics  being  then  fewer  in 
number  than  the  Muhammadans,  the  proportions  being 
about  1  to  1J,5  whereas  less  than  a  hundred  years  before, 
they  had  outnumbered  the  Muhammadans  in  the  proportion 
of  10  to  1 ; 6  in  the  Archbishopric  of  Durazzo  the  Christian 
population  had  decreased  by  about  half  in  twenty  years,7 
in  another  town  (in  the  diocese  of  Kroia)  the  entire  popula- 
tion passed  from  Christianity  to  Islam  in  the  course  of  thirty 
years.8  In  spite  of  the  frequent  protests  and  regulations 
made  by  their  ecclesiastical  superiors,  the  parish  priests 
continued  to  countenance  the  open  profession  of  Islam  along 
with  a  secret  adherence  to  Christianity,  on  the  part  of  many 
male  members  of  their  flocks,  by  administering  to  them  the 
Blessed  Sacrament ;  the  result  of  which  was  that  the  children 

1  Bizzi,  fol.  38,  b;   63,  a.  2  Kyriakos,  p.  12. 

3  Farlati,  torn.  vii.  pp.  124,  141.  4  Marco  Crisio,  p.  202. 

5  Zmaievich,  fol.  227.  6  Bizzi,  fol.  60,  b. 

7  Zmaievich,  fol.  137.  8  Zmaievich,  fol.  157. 


186  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

of  such  persons,  being  brought  up  as  Muhammadans,  were 
for  ever  lost  to  the  Christian  Church.1  Similarly,  Christian 
parents  still  gave  their  daughters  in  marriage  to  Muhamma- 
dans, the  parish  priests  countenancing  such  unions  by 
administering  the  sacrament  to  such  women,2  in  spite  of  the 
fulminations  of  the  higher  clergy  against  such  indulgence.3 
Such  action  on  the  part  of  the  lower  clergy  can  hardly, 
however,  be  taken  as  indicating  any  great  zeal  on  behalf  of 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  their  flocks,  in  the  face  of  the  accusa- 
tions brought  against  them;  the  majority  of  them  are 
accused  of  being  scandalous  livers,  who  very  seldom  went  to 
confession  and  held  drunken  revels  in  their  parsonages  on 
festival  days;  they  sold  the  property  of  the  Church,  fre- 
quently absented  themselves  from  their  parishes,  and  when 
censured,  succeeded  in  getting  off  by  putting  themselves 
under  the  protection  of  the  Turks.4  The  Reformed 
Franciscans  and  the  Observants  who  had  been  sent  to 
minister  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  people  did  nothing 
but  quarrel  and  go  to  law  with  one  another;  much  to  the 
scandal  of  the  laity  and  the  neglect  of  the  mission.5  In  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  five  out  of  the  twelve 
Albanian  sees  were  vacant;  the  diocese  of  Pullati  had  not 
been  visited  by  a  bishop  for  thirty  years,  and  there  were 
only  two  priests  to  6348  souls.6  In  some  parishes  in  the 
interior  of  the  country,  there  had  been  no  priests  for  more 
than  forty  years ;  and  this  was  in  no  way  due  to  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  "  Turkish  tyrant,"  for  when  at  last  four  Fran- 
ciscan missionaries  were  sent,  they  reported  that  they  could 
go  through  the  country  and  exercise  their  sacred  office 
without  any  hindrance  whatever.7  The  bishop  of  Sappa, 
to  the  great  prejudice  of  his  diocese,  had  been  long  resident 
in  Venice,  where  he  is  said  to  have  lived  a  vicious  life,  and 
had  appointed  as  his  vicar  an  ignorant  priest  who  was  a 
notorious  evil-liver  :  this  man  had  12,400  souls  under  his 
charge,  and,  says  the  ecclesiastical  visitor,  "  through  the 
absence  of  the  bishop  there  is  danger  of  his  losing  his  own 

1  Zmaievich,  fol.  u,  159.  2  Zmaievich,  fol.  13. 

3  Bizzi,  fol.  38,  b.     Farlati,  vol.  vii.  p.  158. 

4  Zmaievich,  fol.  13-14. 

'  Informatione  circa  la  missione  d'Albania,  fol.  196. 

6  Crisio,  fol.  204.  7  Fra  Bonaventura,  fol.  201: 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  187 

soul  and  compassing  the  destruction  of  the  souls  under  him 
and  of  the  property  of  the  Church."  x  The  bishop  of  Scutari 
was  looked  upon  as  a  tyrant  by  his  clergy  and  people,  and 
only  succeeded  in  keeping  his  post  through  the  aid  of  the 
Turks ;  2  and  Zmaievich  complains  of  the  bishops  generally 
that  they  burdened  the  parishes  in  their  diocese  with  forced 
contributions.3  It  appears  that  Christian  ecclesiastics  were 
authorised  by  the  Sultan  to  levy  contributions  on  their 
flocks.  Thus  the  Archbishop  of  Antivari  (1599-1607)  was 
allowed  to  "  exact  and  receive  '  two  aspers  from  each 
Christian  family,  twelve  for  every  first  marriage  (and  double 
the  amount  for  a  second,  and  quadruple  for  a  third  marriage), 
and  one  gold  piece  from  each  parish  annually,  and  it  seems 
to  have  been  possible  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  the  Turkish 
authorities  in  levying  these  contributions.4 

Throughout  the  whole  of  Albania  there  was  not  a  single 
Christian  school,5  and  the  priests  were  profoundly  ignorant  : 
some  were  sent  to  study  in  Italy,  but  Marco  Crisio  condemns 
this  practice,  as  such  priests  were  in  danger  of  finding  life 
in  Italy  so  pleasant  that  they  refused  to  return  to  their 
native  country.  With  a  priesthood  so  ignorant  and  so 
careless  of  their  sacred  duties,  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn 
that  the  common  people  had  no  knowledge  even  of  the  rudi- 
ments of  their  faith,  and  that  numerous  abuses  and  corrup- 
tions sprang  up  among  them,  which  "  wrought  the  utmost 
desolation  to  this  vineyard  of  the  Lord."  6  Many  Christians 
lived  in  open  concubinage  for  years,  still,  however,  being 
admitted  to  the  sacraments,7  while  others  had  a  plurality 
of  wives.8  In  this  latter  practice  we  notice  an  assimilation 
between  the  habits  of  the  two  communities — the  Christian 
and  the  Muslim — which  is  further  illustrated  by  the  ad- 
mission of  Muhammadans  as  sponsors  at  the  baptism  of 
Christian  children,  while  the  old  superstitious  custom  of 
baptising  Muhammadan  children  was  still  sanctioned  by 
the  priests.9 

1  Marco  Crisio,  fol.  202,  205.  2  Id.  fol.  205. 

y  Zmaievich,  fol.  13. 

4  Farlati,  torn.  vii.  p.  109.     Bizzi,  fol.  19,  b. 

5  Marco  Crisio,  fol.  205.  6  Zmaievich,  fol.  11. 

7  Id.  fol.  32.  8  Crisio,  fol.  204. 

8  Zmaievich,  fol,  11,     Farlati,  vol.  vii.  p.  151. 


188  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Such  being  the  state  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Albania  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  some  very  trifling 
incentive  would  have  been  enough  to  bring  about  a  wide- 
spread apostasy;    and  the  punishment  inflicted  on  the  re- 
bellious Catholics  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century  was  a 
determining  factor  more  than  sufficient  to  consummate  the 
tendencies  that  had  been  drawing  them  towards  Islam  and 
to  cause  large  numbers  of  them  to  fall  away  from  the  Christian 
Church.     The  rebellious  movement  referred  to  seems  to  have 
been  instigated  by  George,  the  thirty-ninth  Archbishop  of 
Antivari  (1635-1644),  who  through  the  bishops  of  Durazzo, 
Scodra  and  Alessio  tried  to  induce  the  leaders  of  the  Christian 
community  to  conspire  against  the  Turkish  rule  and  hand 
over  the  country  to  the  neighbouring  Christian  power,  the 
Republic  of  Venice.     As  in  his  time  Venice  was  at  peace  with 
the  Turks  a  fitting  opportunity  for  the  hatching  of  this  plot 
did  not  occur,  but  in  1645  war  broke  out  between  Turkey 
and  the  Republic,  and  the  Venetians  made  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  capture  the  city  of  Antivari,  which  before  the 
Turkish  conquest  had  been  in  their  possession  for  more  than 
three  centuries  (1262-1571).     The  Albanian  Catholics  who 
had  sided  with  the  enemy  and  secretly  given  them  assistance 
were  severely  punished  and  deprived  of  their  privileges, 
while  the  Greek  Christians  (who  had  everything  to  fear  in 
the  event  of  the  restoration  of  the  Venetian  rule  and  had 
remained  faithful  to  the  Turkish  government)  were  liberally 
rewarded  and  were  lauded  as  the  saviours  of  their  country. 
Many   of  the   Catholics   either  became   Muhammadans   or 
joined  the  Greek  Church.     The  latter  fact  is  very  significant 
as  showing  that  there  was  no  persecution  of  the  Christians 
as  such,  nor  any  attempt  to  force  the  acceptance  of  Islam 
upon  them.      The  Catholics  who  became   Muhammadans 
did  so  to  avoid  the  odium  of  their  position  after  the  failure 
of  their  plot,  and  could  have  gained  the  same  end  and  have 
at  the  same  time  retained  their  Christian  faith  by  joining 
the  Greek  Church,  which  was  not  only  officially  recognised 
by  the  Turkish  government  but  in  high  favour  in  Antivari 
at  this  time  :    so  that  those  who  neglected  to  do  so,  could 
have  had  very  little  attachment  to  the  Christian  religion. 
The  same  remark  holds  good  of  the  numerous  conversions 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN  EUROPE  189 

to  Islam  in  the  succeeding  years  :  Zmaievich  attributes 
them  in  some  cases  to  the  desire  to  avoid  the  payment  of 
tribute,  but,  from  what  has  been  said  above,  it  is  very 
unlikely  that  this  was  the  sole  determining  motive. 

In  1649  a  still  more  widespread  insurrection  broke  out, 
an  Archbishop  of  Antivari,  Joseph  Maria  Bonaldo  (1646- 
1654),  being  again  the  main  instigator  of  the  movement; 
and  the  leading  citizens  of  Antivari,  Scodra  and  other  towns 
conspired  to  throw  open  their  gates  to  the  army  of  the 
Venetian  Republic.  But  this  plot  also  failed  and  the  in- 
surrection was  forcibly  crushed  by  the  Turkish  troops,  aided 
by  the  dissensions  that  arose  among  the  Christians  them- 
selves. Many  Albanians  whose  influence  was  feared  were 
transported  from  their  own  country  into  the  interior  of  the 
Turkish  dominions ;  a  body  of  3000  men  crossed  the  border 
into  Venetian  territory ;  those  who  remained  were  overawed 
by  the  erection  of  fortresses  and  the  marching  of  troops 
through  the  disaffected  districts,  while  heavy  fines  were 
imposed  upon  the  malcontents.1 

Unfortunately  the  Christian  writers  who  complain  of  the 
"  unjust  tributes  and  vexations  '  with  which  the  Turks 
oppressed  the  Albanians,  so  that  they  apostatised  to  Islam,2 
make  use  only  of  general  expressions,  and  give  us  no  details 
to  enable  us  to  judge  whether  or  not  such  complaints  were 
justified  by  the  facts.  Zmaievich  prefaces  his  account  of 
the  apostasy  of  2000  persons  with  an  enumeration  of 
the  taxes  and  other  burdens  the  Christians  had  to  bear,  but 
all  these,  he  says,  were  common  also  to  the  Muhammadans, 
with  the  exception  of  the  capitation-tax  of  six  reals  a  year 
for  each  male,  and  another  tax,  termed  sciataraccio,  of  three 
reals  a  year.3  He  concludes  with  the  words  :  "  The  nation, 
wounded  by  these  taxes  in  its  weakest  part,  namely,  worldly 
interest,  to  the  consideration  of  which  it  has  a  singular 
leaning  either  by  nature  or  by  necessity,  has  given  just  cause 
for  lamenting  the  deplorable  loss  of  about  2000  souls  who 
apostatised  from  the  true  faith  so  as  not  to  be  subject  to 
the  tribute."  4     There  is  nothing  in  his  report  to  show  that 

1  Farlati,  vol.  vii.  pp.  126-32.     Zmaievich,  fol.  4-5,  fol.  20. 

2  "  Plerique,  ut  se  iniquis  tributis  et  vexationibus  eximerent,  paullatim 
a  Christiana  religione  deficere  coeperunt."     (Farlati,  torn.  vii.  p.  311.) 

3  Zmaievich   fol.  5.  4  Id.  fol.  5. 


i9o  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

the  taxes  the  Catholics  had  to  pay  constituted  so  intolerable 
a  burden  as  to  force  them  to  renounce  their  creed,  and  though 
he  attributes  many  conversions  to  Islam  to  the  desire  of 
escaping  the  tribute,  he  says  expressly  that  these  apostasies 
from  the  Christian  faith  are  mainly  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
extreme  ignorance  of  the  clergy,1  in  great  measure  also  to 
their  practice  of  admitting  to  the  sacraments  those  who 
openly  professed  Islam  while  in  secret  adhering  to  the 
Christian  faith  :  2  in  another  place  he  says,  speaking  of  the 
clergy  who  were  not  fit  to  be  parish  priests  and  their  practice 
of  administering  the  sacraments  to  apostates  and  secret 
Christians  :  "  These  are  precisely  the  two  causes  from  which 
have  come  all  the  losses  that  the  Christian  Church  has 
sustained  in  Albania."  3  There  is  very  little  doubt  that  the 
widespread  apostasy  at  this  time  was  the  result  of  a  long 
series  of  influences  similar  to  those  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
pages,  and  that  the  deliverance  from  the  payment  of  the 
tribute  was  the  last  link  in  the  chain. 

What  active  efforts  Muhammadans  themselves  were 
making  to  gain  over  the  Christians  to  Islam,  we  can  hardly 
expect  to  learn  from  the  report  of  an  ecclesiastical  visitor. 
But  we  find  mention  of  a  district,  the  inhabitants  of  which, 
from  their  intercourse  with  the  Turks,  had  "  contracted 
the  vices  of  these  infidels/'  and  one  of  the  chief  causes  of 
their  falling  away  from  the  Christian  faith  was  their  con- 
tracting marriages  with  Turkish  women.4  There  were  no 
doubt  strong  Muhammadan  influences  at  work  here,  as  also 
in  the  two  parishes  of  Biscascia  and  Basia,  whose  joint 
population  of  nearly  a  thousand  souls  was  "  exposed  to  the 
obvious  risk  of  apostatising  through  lack  of  any  pastor," 
and  were  "  much  tempted  in  their  faith,  and  needed  to  be 
strengthened  in  it  by  wise  and  zealous  pastors."  5 

Zmaievich  speaks  of  one  of  the  old  noble  Christian  families 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Antivari  which  was  represented  at 
that  time  by  two  brothers;  the  elder  of  these  had  been 
"  wheedled "  by  the  prominent  Muhammadans  of  the 
place,  who  were  closely  related  to  him,  into  denying  his 

1  Zmaievich,  fol.  15,  197.  2  Id-  fo1-  "• 

3  Id.  fol.  137.  4  Id-  fo1-  J49- 

'  Id.  fol.  143-4. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  EUROPE  191 

faith;  the  younger  wished  to  study  for  the  priesthood,  in 
which  office  "  he  would  be  of  much  assistance  to  the  Christian 
Church  through  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  Turks  held  his 
family;  which  though  poor  was  universally  respected."1 
This  indeed  is  another  indication  of  the  fact  that  the  Muham- 
madans  did  not  ill-treat  the  Christians,  merely  as  such,  but 
only  when  they  showed  themselves  to  be  politically  dis- 
affected. Zmaievich,  who  was  himself  an  Albanian,  and 
took  up  his  residence  in  his  diocese  instead  of  in  Venetian 
territory,  as  many  of  the  Archbishops  of  Antivari  seem  to 
have  done,2  was  received  with  "  extraordinary  honours  ' 
and  with  "  marvellous  courtesy,"  not  only  by  the  Turkish 
officials  generally,  but  also  by  the  Supreme  Pasha  of  Albania 
himself,  who  gave  him  the  place  of  honour  in  his  Divan, 
always  accompanying  him  to  the  door  on  his  departure  and 
receiving  him  there  on  his  arrival.3  This  "  barbarian  " 
who  "  showed  himself  more  like  a  generous-hearted  Christian 
than  a  Turk,"  gave  more  substantial  marks  of  good  feeling 
towards  the  Christians  by  remitting — at  the  Archbishop's 
request — the  tribute  due  for  the  ensuing  year  from  four 
separate  towns.4  If  any  of  the  Christian  clergy  were 
roughly  treated  by  the  Turks,  it  seems  generally  to  have 
been  due  to  the  suspicion  of  treasonable  correspondence 
with  the  enemies  of  the  Turks;  ecclesiastical  visits 
to  Italy  seem  also  to  have  excited — and  in  many 
cases,  justly — such  suspicions.  Otherwise  the  Christian 
clergy  seem  to  have  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  the 
treatment  they  received  from  the  Muslims;  Zmaievich 
even  speaks  of  one  parish  priest  being  "  much  beloved  by 
the  principal  Turks,"  5  and  doubtless  there  were  parallels 
in  Albania  to  the  case  of  a  priest  in  the  diocese  of  Trebinje 
in  Herzegovina,  who  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  suspected,  on  account  of  his  familiar  intercourse 
with  Muhammadans,  of  having  formed  an  intention  to 
embrace  Islam,  and  was  accordingly  sent  by  his  bishop  to 
Rome  under  safe  custody.6 

No  subsequent  period  of  Albanian  history  appears  to 

1  Zmaievich,  fol.  22.  2  Farlati,  torn.  vii.  p.  141. 

3  Zmaievich,  fol.  7,  17.  4  Id-  fol.  9. 

6  Id.  fol.  141.  6  Farlati,  vol.  vi.  p.  317. 


192  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

have  witnessed  such  widespread  apostasy  as  the  seventeenth 
century,  but  there  have  been  occasional  accessions  to  Islam 
up  to  more  recent  times.  In  Southern  Albania,  the  country 
of  the  Tosks,  the  preponderance  of  the  Muhammadan 
population  placed  the  Christians  at  a  disadvantage,  and  a 
story  is  told  of  the  Karamurtads,  inhabitants  of  thirty-six 
villages  near  Pogoniani,  that  up  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century  they  were  Christians,  but  finding  themselves  unable 
to  repel  the  continual  attacks  of  the  neighbouring  Muham- 
madan population  of  Leskoviki,  they  met  in  a  church  and 
prayed  that  the  saints  might  work  some  miracle  on  their 
behalf;  they  swore  to  fast  till  Easter  in  expectation  of  the 
divine  assistance;  but  Easter  came  and  no  miracle  was 
wrought,  so  the  whole  population  embraced  Islam;  soon 
afterwards  they  obtained  the  arms  they  required  and 
massacred  their  old  enemies  in  Leskoviki  and  took 
possession  of  their  lands.1  Community  of  faith  in 
Albania  is  never  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  a  tribal 
feud.  Even  up  to  the  nineteenth  century  Albanian  tribes 
and  villages  have  changed  their  religion  for  very  trivial 
reasons ;  part  of  one  Christian  tribe  is  said  to  have  turned 
Muhammadan  because  their  priest,  who  served  several 
villages  and  visited  them  first,  insisted  on  saying  mass  at 
an  unreasonably  early  hour.2 

At  the  present  day  the  Muhammadans  in  Albania  are  said 
to  number  about  1,000,000  and  the  Christians  480,000,  but 
the  accuracy  of  these  figures  is  not  certain.  The  Mirdites 
are  entirely  Christian;  they  submitted  to  the  Sultan  on 
condition  that  no  Muslim  would  be  allowed  to  settle  in  their 
territory,  but  adherents  of  both  the  rival  creeds  are  found  in 
almost  all  the  other  tribes.  Central  Albania  is  said  to  be 
almost  entirely  Muhammadan,  and  the  followers  of  Islam 
form  about  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Northern 
Albania;  the  Christian  population  attains  its  largest  pro- 
portion in  Southern  Albania,  especially  in  the  districts 
bordering  upon  Greece. 

The  kingdom  of  Servia  first  paid  tribute  to  the  Ottomans 
m  I375  and  lost  its  independence  after  the  disastrous  defeat 
of  Kossovo  (1389),  where  both  the  king  of  Servia  and  the 

1  Eliot,  p.  401.  a  Id.  p.  392. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN  EUROPE  193 

Turkish  sultan  were  left  dead  upon  the  field.  The  successors 
of  the  two  sovereigns  entered  into  a  friendly  compact,  the 
young  Servian  prince,  Stephen,  acknowledged  the  suzerainty 
of  Turkey,  gave  his  sister  in  marriage  to  the  new  sultan, 
Bayazid,  and  formed  with  him  a  league  of  brotherhood.  At 
the  battle  of  Nikopolis  (1394),  which  gave  to  the  Turks 
assured  possession  of  the  whole  Balkan  peninsula,  except 
the  district  surrounding  Constantinople,  the  Servian  con- 
tingent turned  the  wavering  fortune  of  the  battle  and  gave 
the  victory  to  the  Turks.  On  the  field  of  Angora  (1402), 
when  the  Turkish  power  was  annihilated  and  Bayazid 
himself  taken  prisoner  by  Timur,  Stephen  was  present  with 
his  Servian  troops  and  fought  bravely  for  his  brother-in-law, 
and  instead  of  taking  this  opportunity  of  securing  his  inde- 
pendence, remained  faithful  to  his  engagement,  and  stood 
by  the  sons  of  Bayazid  until  they  recovered  their  father's 
throne.  Under  the  successor  of  Stephen,  George  Brankovich, 
Servia  enjoyed  a  semi-independence,  but  when  in  1438  he 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt,  his  country  was  again  overrun 
by  the  Turks.  Then  for  a  time  Servia  had  to  acknowledge 
the  suzerainty  of  Hungary,  but  the  defeat  of  John  Hunyady 
at  Varna  in  1444  brought  her  once  more  under  tribute,  and 
in  1459  she  finally  became  a  Turkish  province. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  Servians  who  had  embraced 
Islam  after  the  battle  of  Kossovo  had  knowledge  of  the  fate 
of  the  little  Muslim  community  that  had  been  rooted  out  of 
Hungary  about  a  century  before,  and  therefore  preferred 
the  domination  of  the  Turks  to  that  of  the  Hungarians. 
Yaqut  gives  the  following  account  of  his  meeting,  about  the 
year  1228,  with  some  members  of  this  group  of  followers  of 
the  Prophet  in  mediaeval  Europe,  who  had  owed  their 
conversion  to  Muslims  who  had  settled  among  them.  "  In 
the  city  of  Aleppo,  I  met  a  large  number  of  persons  called 
Bashkirs,  with  reddish  hair  and  reddish  faces.  They  were 
studying  law  according  to  the  school  of  Abu  Hanifah  (may 
God  be  well  pleased  with  him  !)  I  asked  one  of  them  who 
seemed  to  be  an  intelligent  fellow  for  information  concern- 
ing their  country  and  their  condition.  He  told  me,  '  Our 
country  is  situated  on  the  other  side  of  Constantinople,  in  a 
kingdom  of  a  people  of  the  Franks  called  the  Hungarians. 
o 


i94  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

We  are  Muslims,  subjects  of  their  king,  and  live  on  the  border 
of  his  territory,  occupying  about  thirty  villages,  which  are 
almost  like  small  towns.  But  the  king  of  the  Hungarians 
does  not  allow  us  to  build  walls  round  any  of  them,  lest  we 
should  revolt  against  him.  We  are  situated  in  the  midst  of 
Christian  countries,  having  the  land  of  the  Slavs  on  the  north, 
on  the  south,  that  of  the  Pope,  i.  e.  Rome  (now  the  Pope 
is  the  head  of  the  Franks,  the  vicar  of  the  Messiah  in  their 
eyes,  like  the  commander  of  the  faithful  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Muslims ;  his  authority  extends  over  all  matters  connected 
with  religion  among  the  whole  of  them) ;  on  the  west, 
Andalusia;  on  the  east,  the  land  of  the  Greeks,  Constanti- 
nople and  its  provinces.'  He  added,  '  Our  language  is  the 
language  of  the  Franks,  we  dress  after  their  fashion,  we 
serve  with  them  in  the  army,  and  we  join  them  in  attacking 
all  their  enemies,  because  they  only  go  to  war  with  the 
enemies  of  Islam.'  I  then  asked  him  how  it  was  they  had 
adopted  Islam  in  spite  of  their  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  the 
unbelievers.  He  answered,  '  I  have  heard  several  of  our 
forefathers  say  that  a  long  time  ago  seven  Muslims  came 
from  Bulgaria  and  settled  among  us.  In  kindly  fashion 
they  pointed  out  to  us  our  errors  and  directed  us  into  the 
right  way,  the  faith  of  Islam.  Then  God  guided  us  and 
(praise  be  to  God  !)  we  all  became  Muslims  and  God  opened 
our  hearts  to  the  faith.  We  have  come  to  this  country  to 
study  law;  when  we  return  to  our  own  land,  the  people 
will  do  us  honour  and  put  us  in  charge  of  their  religious 
affairs.'  '  1  Islam  kept  its  ground  among  the  Bashkirs  of 
Hungary  until  1340,  when  King  Charles  Robert  compelled 
all  his  subjects  that  were  not  yet  Christians  to  embrace  the 
Christian  faith  or  quit  the  country.2 

The  Servian  Muslims  may,  therefore,  well  have  been 
pleased  to  escape  from  the  rule  of  Hungary,  like  their 
Christian  fellow-countrymen,  for  when  these  were  given 
the  choice  between  the  Roman  Catholic  rule  of  Hungary  and 
the  Muslim  rule  of  the  Turks,  the  devotion  of  the  Servians 
to  the  Greek  Church  led  them  to  prefer  the  tolerance  of 
the   Muhammadans   to   the   uncompromising   proselytising 

1  Yaqut,  vol.  i.  p.  469  sq. 

2  Geographie  d'Aboulfeda,  traduite  par  M.  Reinaud,  tome  ii.  pp   294-5. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  195 

spirit  of  the  Latins.  An  old  legend  thus  represents  their 
feelings  at  this  time  : — The  Turks  and  the  Hungarians  were 
at  war ;  George  Brankovich  sought  out  John  Hunyady  and 
asked  him,  "  If  you  are  victorious,  what  will  you  do  ?  " 
"  Establish  the  Roman  Catholic  faith/'  was  the  answer. 
Then  he  sought  out  the  sultan  and  asked  him,  "  If  you  come 
out  victorious,  what  will  you  do  with  our  religion  ?  "  "  By 
the  side  of  every  mosque  shall  stand  a  church,  and  every 
man  shall  be  free  to  pray  in  whichever  he  chooses."  *  The 
treachery  of  some  Servian  priests  forced  the  garrison  of 
Belgrade  to  capitulate  to  the  Turks ; 2  similarly  the  Servians 
of  Semendria,  on  the  Danube,  welcomed  the  Turkish  troops 
who  in  1600  delivered  them  from  the  rule  of  their  Catholic 
neighbours.3 

The  spread  of  Islam  among  the  Servians  began  imme- 
diately after  the  battle  of  Kossovo,  when  a  large  part  of  the 
old  feudal  nobility,  such  as  still  remained  alive  and  did  not 
take  refuge  in  neighbouring  Christian  countries,  went  over 
voluntarily  to  the  faith  of  the  Prophet,  in  order  to  keep  their 
old  privileges  undisturbed.4  In  these  converted  nobles  the 
sultans  found  the  most  zealous  propagandists  of  the  new 
faith.5  But  the  majority  of  the  Servian  people  clung 
firmly  to  their  old  religion  through  all  their  troubles  and 
sufferings,  and  only  in  Stara  Serbia  or  Old  Servia,6  which 
now  forms  the  north-eastern  portion  of  modern  Albania, 
has  there  been  any  very  considerable  number  of  conversions. 
Even  here  the  spread  of  Muhammadanism  proceeded  very 
slowly  until  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  Austrians 
induced  the  Servians  to  rise  in  revolt  and,  after  the  ill-success 
of  this  rising,  the  then  Patriarch,  Arsenius  III  Tsernoi'evich, 
in  1690  emigrated  with  40,000  Servian  families  across  the 
border  into  Hungary;  another  exodus  in  1739  of  15,000 
families  under  the  leadership  of  Arsenius  IV  Jovanovich, 
well  nigh  denuded  this  part  of  the  country  of  its  original 
Servian  population.7 

1  Enrique  Dupuy  de  Lome  :  Los  Esclavos  y  Turquia,  pp.  17-18. 
(Madrid,  1877.) 

2  De  la  Jonquiere,  p.  215.  3  Id.  p.  290. 

4  Kanitz,  p.  37.  5  Id.  pp.  37-8. 

6  A  map  of  this  country  is  given  by  Mackenzie  and  Irby  (p.  243)  :  it 
contains  Prizren,  the  old  Servian  capital,  Ipek,  the  seat  of  the  Servian 
Patriarch,  and  the  battle-held  of  Kossovo.  7  Kanitz,  p.  37. 


196  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Albanian  colonists  from  the  south  pressed  into  the  country 
vacated  by  the  fugitives  :  these  Albanians  at  the  time  of 
their  arrival  were  Roman  Catholics  for  the  most  part,  but 
after  they  settled  in  Old  Servia  they  gradually  adopted 
Islam  and  at  the  present  time  the  remnant  of  Roman 
Catholic  Albanians  is  but  small,  though  from  time  to  time 
it  is  recruited  by  fresh  arrivals  from  the  mountains  :  the 
new-comers,  however,  usually  follow  the  example  of  their 
predecessors,  and  after  a  while  become  Muhammadans.1 

After  this  Albanian  immigration,  Islam  began  to  spread 
more  rapidly  among  the  remnant  of  the  Servian  population. 
The  Servian  clergy  were  very  ignorant  and  unlettered, 
they  could  only  manage  with  difficulty  to  read  their  service- 
books  and  hardly  any  had  learned  to  write;  they  neither 
preached  to  the  people  nor  taught  them  the  catechism, 
consequently  in  whole  villages  scarcely  a  man  could  be 
found  who  knew  the  Lord's  Prayer  or  how  many  command- 
ments there  were;  even  the  priests  themselves  were  quite 
as  ignorant.2  After  the  insurrection  of  1689,  the  Patriarch 
of  Ipek,  the  ecclesiastical  capital  of  Servia,  was  appointed 
by  the  Porte,  but  in  1737,  as  the  result  of  another  rebellion, 
the  Servian  Patriarchate  was  entirely  suppressed  and  the 
Servian  Church  made  dependent  upon  the  Greek  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople.  The  churches  were  filled  with  Greek 
bishops,  who  made  common  cause  with  the  Turkish  Beys 
and  Pashas  in  bleeding  the  unfortunate  Christians  :  their 
national  language  was  proscribed  and  the  Old  Slavonic 
service-books,  etc.,  were  collected  and  sent  off  to  Con- 
stantinople.3 With  such  a  clergy  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  Christian  faith  should  decline  :  e.g.  in  the  commune  of 
Gora  (in  the  district  of  Prizren) ,  which  had  begun  to  become 
Muhammadanised  soon  after  the  great  exodus  of  1690,  the 
Servians  that  still  clung  to  the  Christian  faith,  appealed 
again  and  again  to  the  Greek  bishop  of  Prizren  to  send  them 
priests,  at  least  occasionally,  but  all  in  vain;  their  children 
remained  unbaptised,  weddings  and  burials  were  conducted 
without  the  blessing  of  the  Church,  and  the  consecrated 
buildings   fell   into   decay.4     In    the   neighbouring   district 

1  Mackenzie  and  Irby,  pp.  250-1.  2  Farlati,  vol.  vii.  pp.  127-S. 

3  Mackenzie  and  Irby,  pp.  374-5.      Kanitz,  p.  39.  4  Id.  pp.  39-40. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  197 

of  Opolje,  similarly,  the  present  Muslim  population  of 
9500  souls  is  probably  for  the  most  part  descended  from  the 
original  Slav  inhabitants  of  the  place.1  At  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  Bizzi  found  in  the  city  of 
Jagnevo,  120  Roman  Catholic  households,  200  Greek  and 
180  Muhammadan ; 2  less  than  a  hundred  years  later,  every 
house  in  the  city  was  looked  upon  as  Muhammadan,  as  the 
head  of  each  family  professed  this  faith  and  the  women 
only,  with  some  of  the  children,  were  Christian.3  About 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  village  of  Ljurs 
was  entirely  Catholic;  in  1863  there  were  90  Muslim  and 
23  Christian  families,  but  at  the  present  day  this  village, 
together  with  the  surrounding  villages,  has  wholly  given 
up  Christianity.4  Until  recently  some  lingering  survivals 
of  their  old  Christian  faith,  such  as  the  burning  of  the 
Yule-log  at  Christmas,  etc.,  were  still  to  be  met  with  in 
certain  villages,  but  such  customs  are  now  fast  dying  out. 

After  the  battle  of  Kossovo  and  the  downfall  of  the  Servian 
empire,  the  wild  highlands  of  Montenegro  afforded  a  refuge 
to  those  Servians  who  would  not  submit  to  the  Turks  but 
were  determined  to  maintain  their  independence.  It  is  not 
the  place  here  to  relate  the  history  of  the  heroic  struggles 
of  this  brave  people  against  overwhelming  odds,  how 
through  centuries  of  continual  warfare,  under  the  rule  of 
their  prince-bishops,5  they  have  kept  alive  a  free  Christian 
state  when  all  their  brethren  of  the  same  race  had  been 
compelled  to  submit  to  Muhammadan  rule.  While  the 
very  basis  of  their  separate  existence  as  a  nation  was  their 
firm  adherence  to  the  Christian  faith  it  could  hardly  have 
been  expected  that  Islam  would  have  made  its  way  among 
them,  but  in  the  seventeenth  century  many  Montenegrins 
in  the  frontier  districts  became  Muhammadans  and  took 
service  with  the  neighbouring  Pashas.  But  in  1703,  Daniel 
Petrovich,  the  then  reigning  bishop,  called  the  tribes  to- 
gether and  told  them  that  the  only  hope  for  their  country 
and  their  faith  lay  in  the  destruction  of  the  Muhammadans 
living  among  them.     Accordingly,   on  Christmas  Eve,   all 

1  Kanitz,  p.  38.  2  Bizzi,  fol.  48,  b. 

a  Zmaievich,  fol.  182.  4  Kanitz,  p.  38. 

•  Montenegro  was  ruled  by  bishops  from  15 16  to  1852, 


198  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  converted  Montenegrins  who  would  not  forswear  Islam 
and  embrace  Christianity  were  massacred  in  cold  blood.1 

To  pass  now  to  Bosnia  : — in  this  country  the  religious  and 
social  conditions  of  the  people,  before  the  Turkish  conquest, 
merit  especial  attention.  The  majority  of  the  population 
belonged  to  a  heretical  Christian  sect,  called  Bogomiles, 
who  from  the  thirteenth  century  had  been  exposed  to  the 
persecution  of  the  Roman  Catholics  and  against  whom 
Popes  had  on  several  occasions  preached  a  Crusade.2  In 
1325,  Pope  John  XXII  wrote  thus  to  the  king  of  Bosnia  : 
"  To  our  beloved  son  and  nobleman,  Stephen,  Prince  of 
Bosnia, — knowing  that  thou  art  a  faithful  son  of  the  Church, 
we  therefore  charge  thee  to  exterminate  the  heretics  in  thy 
dominion,  and  to  render  aid  and  assistance  to  Fabian,  our 
Inquisitor,  forasmuch  as  a  large  multitude  of  heretics  from 
many  and  divers  parts  collected  hath  flowed  together  into 
the  principality  of  Bosnia,  trusting  there  to  sow  their 
obscene  errors  and  dwell  there  in  safety.  These  men,  imbued 
with  the  cunning  of  the  Old  Fiend,  and  armed  with  the  venom 
of  their  falseness,  corrupt  the  minds  of  Catholics  by  outward 
show  of  simplicity  and  the  sham  assumption  of  the  name  of 
Christians ;  their  speech  crawleth  like  a  crab,  and  they  creep 
in  with  humility,  but  in  secret  they  kill,  and  are  wolves  in 
sheep's  clothing,  covering  their  bestial  fury  as  a  means  to 
deceive  the  simple  sheep  of  Christ. ' '  In  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  sufferings  of  the  Bogomiles  became  so  intolerable  that 
they  appealed  to  the  Turks  to  deliver  them  from  their 
unhappy  condition,  for  the  king  of  Bosnia  and  the  priests 
were  pushing  the  persecution  of  the  Bogomiles  to  an  extreme 
which  perhaps  it  had  never  reached  before ;  as  many  as  forty 
thousand  of  them  fled  from  Bosnia  and  took  refuge  in  neigh- 
bouring countries ;  others  who  did  not  succeed  in  making 
their  escape,  were  sent  in  chains  to  Rome.  But  even  these 
violent  measures  did  little  to  diminish  the  strength  of  the 
Bogomiles  in  Bosnia,  as  in  1462  we  are  told  that  heresy  was 
as  powerful  as  ever  in  this  country.  The  following  year, 
when  Bosnia  was  invaded  by  Muhammad  II,  the  Catholic 

1  E.  L.  Clark,  pp.  362-3. 

2  Honoruis    III  in  1221,  Gregory  IX    in    1238,  Innocent  IV  in    1246, 
Benedict  XII  in  1337.     The  Inquisition  was  established  in  1291. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  199 

king  found  himself  deserted  by  his  subjects  :  the  keys  of  the 
principal  fortress,  the  royal  city  of  Bobovatz,  were  handed 
over  to  the  Turks  by  the  Bogomile  governor;  the  other 
fortresses  and  towns  hastened  to  follow  this  example,  and 
within  a  week  seventy  cities  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Sultan,  and  Muhammad  II  added  Bosnia  to  the  number  of 
his  numerous  conquests.1 

From  this  time  forth  we  hear  but  little  of  the  Bogomiles ; 
they  seem  to  have  willingly  embraced  Islam  in  large  numbers 
immediately  after  the  Turkish  conquest,  and  the  rest  seem 
to  have  gradually  followed  later,  while  the  Bosnian  Roman 
Catholics   emigrated   into    the   neighbouring   territories   of 
Hungary  and  Austria.     It  has  been  supposed  by  some  2 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  Bogomiles,  at  least  in  the 
earlier  period  of  the  conquest,  embraced  Islam  with  the 
intention   of  returning  to   their   faith   when   a   favourable 
opportunity  presented  itself ;  as,  being  constantly  persecuted 
they  may  have  learnt  to  deny  their  faith  for  the  time  being ; 
but  that,  when  this  favourable  opportunity  never  arrived, 
this  intention  must  have  gradually  been  lost  sight  of  and 
at  length  have  been  entirely  forgotten  by  their  descendants. 
Such  a  supposition  is,  however,  a  pure  conjecture  and  has  no 
direct  evidence  to  support  it.     We  may  rather  find  the  reason 
for  the  willingness  of  the  Bogomiles  to  allow  themselves  to 
be  merged  in  the  general  mass  of  the  Musalman  believers, 
in  the  numerous  points  of  likeness  between  their  peculiar 
beliefs  and  the  tenets  of  Islam.     They  rejected  the  worship 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  institution  of  Baptism  and  every 
form  of  priesthood.3     They  abominated  the  cross  as  a  religi- 
ous symbol,  and  considered  it  idolatry  to  bow  down  before 
religious  pictures  and  the  images  and  relics  of  the  saints. 
Their  houses  of  prayer  were  very  simple  and  unadorned,  in 
contrast  to  the  gaudily  decorated  Roman  Catholic  churches, 
and  they  shared  the  Muhammadan  dislike  of  bells,  which 
they  styled  "  the  devil's  trumpets."     They  believed  that 

1  Asboth,  pp.  42-95.     Evans,  pp.  xxxvi-xlii. 

2  Asboth,  pp.  96-7. 

3  "  They  revile  the  ceremonies  of  the  church  and  all  church  dignitaries, 
and  they  call  orthodox  priests  blind  Pharisees,  and  bay  at  them  as  dogs  at 
horses.  As  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  they  assert  that  it  is  not  kept  according 
to  God's  commandment,  and  that  it  is  not  the  body  of  God,  but  ordinary 
bread."     (Kosmas,  quoted  by  Evans,  pp.  xxx-^xxxi.) 


200  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

Christ  was  not  himself  crucified  but  that  some  phantom  was 
substituted  in  his  place  :    in  this  respect  agreeing  partially 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Qur'an.1     Their  condemnation  of 
wine  and  the  general  austerity  of  their  mode  of  life  and  the 
stern  severity  of  their  outward  demeanour  would  serve  as 
further  links  to  bind  them  to  Islam,2  for  it  was  said  of  them  : 
"  You  will  see  heretics  quiet  and  peaceful  as  lambs  without, 
silent,  and  wan  with  hypocritical  fasting,  who  do  not  speak 
much  nor  laugh  loud,  who  let  their  beard  grow,  and  leave 
their  person  incompt."  3     They  prayed  five  times  a  day  and 
five  times  a  night,  repeating  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  frequent 
kneelings,4  and  would  thus  find  it  very  little  change  to  join 
in  the  services  of  the  mosque.     I  have  brought  together 
here  the  many  points  of  likeness  to  the  teachings  of  Islam, 
which  we  find  in  this  Bogomilian  heresy,  but  there  were,  of 
course,  some  doctrines  of  a  distinctly  Christian  character 
which  an  orthodox  Muslim  could  not  hold ;  still,  with  so  much 
in  common,  it  can  easily  be  understood  how  the  Bogomiles 
may  gradually  have  been  persuaded  to  give  up  those  doctrines 
that  were  repugnant  to  the  Muslim  faith.     Their  Manichaean 
dualism  was  equally  irreconcilable  with  Muslim  theology, 
but  Islam  has  always  shown  itself  tolerant  of  such  theological 
speculations  provided  that  they  did  not  issue  in  a  schism 
and  that  a  general  assent  and  consent  were  given  to  the  main 
principles  of  its  theory  and  practice. 

The  Turks,  as  was  their  usual  custom,  offered  every 
advantage  to  induce  the  Bosnians  to  accept  their  creed. 
All  who  embraced  Islam  were  allowed  to  retain  their  lands 
and  possessions,  and  their  fiefs  were  exempt  from  all  taxa- 
tion,5 and  it  is  probable  that  many  rightful  heirs  of  ancient 
houses  who  had  been  dispossessed  for  heretical  opinions  by 
the  Catholic  faction  among  the  nobility,  now  embraced  the 
opportunity  of  regaining  their  old  position  by  submission 
to    the    dominant    creed.     The    Bosnian    Muhammadans 

1  Surah  iv.  156. 

2  Cf.  the  admiration  of  the  Turks  for  Charles  XII  of  Sweden.  '  Son 
opiniatrete  a  s'abstenir  du  vin,  et  sa  regularity  a  assister  deux  fois  par  jour 
aux  prieres  publiques,  leur  fesaient  dire :  C'est  un  vrai  musulman." 
(CEuvres  de  Voltaire,  tome  23,  p.  200.)      (Paris,  1785.) 

3  Kosmas,  quoted  by  Evans,  p.  xxxi. 

4  Asboth,  p.  36.     Wetzer  und  Welte,  vol.  ii.  p.  975- 
?   Olivier,  pp.  17-13. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  201 

retained  their  nationality  and  still  for  the  most  part  bear 
Serb  names  and  speak  only  their  national  tongue ; 1  at  the 
same  time  they  have  always  evinced  a  lively  zeal  for  their 
new  faith,  and  by  their  military  prowess,  their  devotion  to 
Islam  and  the  powerful  influence  they  exercised,  the  Bosnian 
nobility  rapidly  rose  into  high  favour  in  Constantinople  and 
many  were  entrusted  with  important  offices  of  state,  e.  g. 
between  the  years  1544  and  161 1  nine  statesmen  of  Bosnian 
origin  filled  the  post  of  Grand  Vizier. 

The  latest  territorial  acquisition  of  the  Ottoman  conquests 
was  the  island  of  Crete,  which  in  1669  was  wrested  from  the 
hands  of  the  Venetian  Republic  by  the  capture  of  the  city 
of  Candia  after  a  long  and  desperate  siege  of  nearly  three 
years,  which  closed  a  struggle  of  twenty-five  years  between 
these  rival  powers  for  the  possession  of  the  island. 

This  was  not  the  first  time  that  Crete  had  come  under 
Muslim  rule.  Early  in  the  ninth  century  the  island  was 
suddenly  seized  by  a  band  of  Saracen  adventurers  from 
Spain,  and  it  remained  in  their  power  for  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half  (a.d.  825-961). 2  During  this  period  well  nigh 
the  whole  population  of  the  island  had  become  Muslim,  and 
the  churches  had  either  fallen  into  ruins  or  been  turned  into 
mosques ;  but  when  the  authority  of  the  Byzantine  empire 
was  once  re-established  here,  the  people  were  converted 
again  to  their  ancient  faith  through  the  skilful  preaching 
of  an  Armenian  monk,  and  the  Christian  religion  became  the 
only  one  professed  on  the  island.3  In  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  Venetians  purchased  the  island  from 
Boniface,  Duke  of  Montserrat,  to  whose  lot  it  had  fallen  after 
the  partition  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  and  they  ruled  it  with 
a  heavy  hand,  apparently  looking  upon  it  only  in  the  light 
of  a  purchase  that  was  to  be  exploited  for  the  benefit  of  the 
home  government  and  its  colonists.  Their  administration 
was  so  oppressive  and  tyrannical  as  to  excite  several  revolts, 
which  were  crushed  with  pitiless  severity ;  on  one  of  these 
occasions  whole  cantons  in  the  provinces  of  Sfakia  and  Lassiti 
were  depopulated,  and  it  was  forbidden  under  pain  of  death 
to  sow  any  corn  there,  so  that  these  districts  remained  barren 

1  Olivier,  p.  113.  2  Amari,  vol.  i.  p.  163;   vol.  ii.  p.  260. 

3  Cornaro,  vol.  i.  pp.  205-8. 


202  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

and  uncultivated  for  nearly  a  century.1  The  terrific  cruelty 
with  which  the  Venetian  senate  suppressed  the  last  of  these 
attempts  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  added  a 
crowning  horror  to  the  miserable  condition  of  the  unhappy 
Cretans.  How  terrible  was  their  lot  at  this  time  we  learn 
from  the  reports  of  the  commissioners  sent  by  the  Venetian 
senate  in  the  latter  part  of  the  same  century,  in  order  to 
inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  islanders.  The  peasants 
were  said  to  be  crushed  down  by  the  crudest  oppression  and 
tyranny  on  the  part  of  the  Venetian  nobles,  their  feudal 
lords,  being  reduced  to  a  worse  condition  than  that  of  slaves, 
so  that  they  never  dared  even  to  complain  of  any  injustice. 
Each  peasant  had  to  do  twelve  days'  forced  labour  for  his 
feudal  lord  every  year  without  payment,  and  could  then  be 
compelled  to  go  on  working  for  as  long  as  his  lord  required 
his  services  at  the  nominal  rate  of  a  penny  a  day ;  his  vine- 
yards were  mulcted  in  a  full  third  of  their  produce,  but  fraud 
and  force  combined  generally  succeeded  in  appropriating 
as  much  as  two-thirds ;  his  oxen  and  mules  could  be  seized 
for  the  service  of  the  lord,  who  had  a  thousand  other  devices 
for  squeezing  the  unfortunate  peasant.2  The  protests  of 
these  commissioners  proved  ineffectual  to  induce  the 
Venetian  senate  to  alleviate  the  unhappy  condition  of 
the  Cretans  and  put  a  stop  to  the  cruelty  and  tyranny 
of  the  nobles  :  it  preferred  to  listen  to  the  advice  of  Fra 
Paolo  Sarpi  who  in  1615  thus  addressed  the  Republic  on  the 
subject  of  its  Greek  colonies  :  "If  the  gentlemen  of  these 
Colonies  do  tyrannize  over  the  villages  of  their  dominion, 
the  best  way  is  not  to  seem  to  see  it,  that  there  may  be  no 
kindness  between  them  and  their  subjects/'  3 

It  is  not  surprising  to  learn  from  the  same  sources  that  the 
Cretans  longed  for  a  change  of  rulers,  and  that  "  they  would 
not  much  stick  at  submitting  to  the  Turk,  having  the 
example  of  all  the  rest  of  their  nation  before  their  eyes." 
Indeed,  many  at  this  time  fled  into  Turkey  to  escape  the 
intolerable  burden  of  taxation,  following  in  the  footsteps  of 
countless  others,  who  from  time  to  time  had  taken  refuge 

1  Perrot,  p.  151. 

-  Pashley,  vol.  i.  p.  30;  vol.  ii.  pp.  284,  291-2, 

a  Id.  vol.  ii.  p.  298. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  203 

there.1  Large  numbers  of  them  also  emigrated  to  Egypt, 
where  many  embraced  Islam.2  Especially  galling  to  the 
Cretans  were  the  exactions  of  the  Latin  clergy  who  appro- 
priated the  endowments  that  belonged  of  right  to  the  Greek 
ecclesiastics,  and  did  everything  they  could  to  insult  the 
Christians  of  the  Greek  rite,  who  constituted  nine-tenths 
of  the  population  of  the  island.3  The  Turks,  on  the  other 
hand,  conciliated  their  good-will  by  restoring  the  Greek 
hierarchy.  This,  according  to  a  Venetian  writer,  was  brought 
about  in  the  following  manner  :  "A  certain  papas  or  priest 
of  Canea  went  to  Cusseim  the  Turkish  general,  and  told 
him  that  if  he  desired  to  gain  the  good-will  of  the  Cretan 
people,  and  bring  detestation  upon  the  name  of  Venice,  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  staunchest 
of  the  links  which  keep  civilised  society  from  falling  asunder 
is  religion.  It  would  be  needful  for  him  to  act  in  a  way 
different  from  the  line  followed  by  the  Venetians.  These 
did  their  utmost  to  root  out  the  Greek  faith  and  establish 
that  of  Rome  in  its  place,  with  which  interest  they  had  made 
an  injunction  that  there  should  be  no  Greek  bishops  in  the 
island.  By  thus  removing  these  venerated  and  authoritative 
shepherds,  they  thought  the  more  easily  to  gain  control  over 
the  scattered  flocks.  This  prohibition  had  caused  such 
distress  in  the  minds  of  the  Cretans  that  they  were  read}^ 
to  welcome  with  joy  and  obedience  any  sovereignty  that 
would  lend  its  will  to  the  re-institution  of  this  order  in  their 
hierarchy — an  order  so  essential  for  the  proper  exercise  of 
their  divine  worship.  lie  added,  that  it  would  be  a  further 
means  of  conciliating  the  people  if  they  were  assured  that 
they  would  not  only  be  confirmed  in  the  old  privileges  of  their 
religion,  but  that  new  privileges  would  be  granted  them. 
These  arguments  seemed  to  Cusseim  so  plausible  that  he 
wrote  at  once  to  Constantinople  with  a  statement  of  them. 
Here  they  were  approved,  and  the  Greek  Patriarch  was 
bidden  to  institute  an  archbishop  who  should  be  metropole 
of  the  Province  of  Candia.  Under  the  metropolitan  seven 
other  bishops  were  also  to  be  nominated.' '  4 

1  Pashley,  vol.  ii.  p.  285. 

2  Id.  vol.  i.  p.  319.  3  Perrot,  p.  151. 

4  Charles  Edwardes  :   Letters  from  Crete,  pp.  90-2.     (London,  1887.) 


204 


THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 


The  Turkish  conquest  seems  to  have  been  very  rapidly 
followed  by  the  conversion  of  large  numbers  of  the  Cretans 
to  Islam.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  same  patriotism 
as  made  them  cling  to  their  old  faith  under  the  foreign 
domination  of  the  Venetians  who  kept  them  at  arm's  length 
and  regarded  any  attempt  at  assimilation  as  an  unpardonable 
indignity,1  and  always  tried  to  impress  on  their  subjects  a 
sense  of  their  inferiority — may  have  led  them  to  accept  the 
religion  of  their  new  masters,  which  at  once  raised  them  from 
the  position  of  subjects  to  that  of  equals  and  gave  them  a 
share  in  the  political  life  and  government  of  their  country. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  causes  of  the  widespread 
conversion  of  the  Cretans,  it  seems  almost  incredible  that 
violence  should  have  changed  the  religion  of  a  people  who 
had  for  centuries  before  clung  firmly  to  their  old  faith  despite 
the  persecution  of  a  hostile  and  a  foreign  creed.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  means  by  which  the  ranks  of  Islam  were 
rilled,  thirty  years  after  the  conquest  we  are  told  that  the 
majority  of  the  Muslims  were  renegades  or  the  children  of 
renegades,2  and  in  little  more  than  a  century  half  the  popula- 
tion of  Crete  had  become  Muhammadan.  From  one  end 
of  the  island  to  the  other,  not  only  in  the  towns  but  also  in 
the  villages,  in  the  inland  districts  and  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  mountains,  were  (and  are  still)  found  Cretan  Muslims 
who  in  figure,  habits  and  speech  are  thoroughly  Greek. 
There  never  has  been,  and  to  the  present  day  there  is  not, 
any  other  language  spoken  on  the  island  of  Crete  except 
Greek ;  even  the  few  Turks  to  be  found  here  had  to  adopt 
the  language  of  the  country  and  all  the  firmans  of  the  Porte 
and  decrees  of  the  Pashas  were  read  and  published  in  Greek.3 
The  bitter  feelings  between  the  Christians  and  Muhammadans 
of  Crete  that  have  made  the  history  of  this  island  during  the 
nineteenth  century  so  sad  a  one,  was  by  no  means  so  virulent 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Greek  revolution,  in  days  when 
the  Cretan  Muslims  were  very  generally  in  the  habit  of  taking 
as  their  wives  Christian  maidens,  the  children  of  their  Chris- 
tian friends.4  The  social  communication  between  the  two 
communities  was  further  signified  by  their  common  dress, 

1  Pashley,  vol.  ii.  pp.  151-2.  2  Id.  vol.  i.  p.  9. 

3  Perrot,  p.  159.  4  Pashley,  vol.  i. 


-  Id.  vol.  1.  p.  9. 

*  Pashley,  vol.  i.  pp.  10,  195. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   EUROPE  205 

as  the  Cretans  of  both  creeds  dressed  so  much  alike  that  the 
distinction  was  often  not  even  recognised  by  residents  of 
long  standing  or  by  Greeks  of  the  neighbouring  islands.1 

Recent  political  events  have  brought  about  a  considerable 
diminution  in  the  Muhammadan  population  of  Crete.  In 
1881  the  number  of  Muhammadans  in  the  island  was  73,234 ; 
in  1909,  in  consequence  of  continual  emigrations,  it  had  been 
reduced  to  33, 496. 2 

1  T.   A.   B.   Spratt :    Travels  and   Researches   in  Crete,   vol.  i.   p.   47. 
(London,  1S65.) 

2  R.  du  M.  M.  vii.  p.  99. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  PERSIA  AND  CENTRAL  ASIA. 

In  order  to  follow  the  course  of  the  spread  of  Islam  west- 
ward into  Central  Asia,  we  must  retrace  our  steps  to  the 
period  of  the  first  Arab  conquests.  By  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century,  the  great  dynasty  of  the  Sasanids  had 
fallen,  and  the  vast  empire  of  Persia  that  for  four  centuries 
had  withstood  the  might  of  Rome  and  Byzantium,  now  be- 
came the  heritage  of  the  Muslims.  When  the  armies  of  the 
state  had  been  routed,  the  mass  of  the  people  offered  little 
resistance;  the  reigns  of  the  last  representatives  of  the 
Sasanid  dynasty  had  been  marked  by  terrible  anarchy,  and 
the  sympathies  of  the  people  had  been  further  alienated 
from  their  rulers  on  account  of  the  support  they  gave  to 
the  persecuting  policy  of  the  state  religion  of  Zoroastrianism. 
The  Zoroastrian  priests  had  acquired  an  enormous  influence 
in  the  state ;  they  were  well-nigh  all-powerful  in  the  councils 
of  the  king  and  arrogated  to  themselves  a  very  large  share 
in  the  civil  administration.  They  took  advantage  of  their 
position  to  persecute  all  those  religious  bodies — (and  they 
were  many) — that  dissented  from  them.  Besides  the 
numerous  adherents  of  older  forms  of  the  Persian  religion, 
there  were  Christians,  Jews,  Sabseans  and  numerous  sects 
in  which  the  speculations  of  Gnostics,  Manichseans  and 
Buddhists  found  expression.  In  all  of  these,  persecution 
had  stirred  up  feelings  of  bitter  hatred  against  the  established 
religion  and  the  dynasty  that  supported  its  oppressions, 
and  so  caused  the  Arab  conquest  to  appear  in  the  light  of 
a  deliverance.1  The  followers  of  all  these  varied  forms  of 
faith  could  breathe  again  under  a  rule  that  granted  them 
religious  freedom  and  exemption  from  military  service,  on 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  pp.  910-11.     A.  de  Gobineau  (1),  pp.  55-6. 

206 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   PERSIA  207 

payment  of  a  light  tribute.  For  the  Muslim  law  granted 
toleration  and  the  right  of  paying  jizyah  not  only  to  the 
Christians  and  Jews,  but  to  Zoroastrians  and  Sabaeans,  to 
worshippers  of  idols,  of  fire  and  of  stone.1  It  was  said  that 
the  Prophet  himself  had  distinctly  given  directions  that  the 
Zoroastrians  were  to  be  treated  exactly  like  "  the  people  of 
the  book,"  i.  e.  the  Jews  and  Christians,  and  that  jizyah 
might  also  be  taken  from  them  in  return  for  protection,2 
— a  tradition  that  probably  arose  in  the  second  century  of 
the  Hijrah,  when  apostolic  sanction  was  sought  for  the 
toleration  that  had  been  extended  to  all  the  followers  of 
the  various  faiths  that  Arabs  had  found  in  the  countries 
they  had  conquered,  whether  such  non-Muslims  came  under 
the  category  Ahl  al-Kitab  or  not.3 

To  the  distracted  Christian  Church  in  Persia  the  change  of 
government  brought  relief  from  the  oppression  of  the 
Sasanid  kings,  who  had  fomented  the  bitter  struggles  of 
Jacobites  and  Nestorians  and  added  to  the  confusion  of 
warring  sects.  Some  reference  has  already4  been  made  to 
earlier  persecutions,  and  even  during  the  expiring  agony  of 
the  Sasanid  dynasty,  Khusrau  II,  exasperated  at  the  defeat 
he  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Christian  emperor, 
Heraclius,  ordered  a  fresh  persecution  of  the  Christians  within 
his  dominions,  a  persecution  from  which  all  the  various 
Christian  sects  alike  had  to  suffer.  These  terrible  conditions 
may  well  have  prepared  men's  minds  for  that  revulsion  of 
feeling  that  facilitates  a  change  of  faith.  "  Side  by  side 
with  the  political  chaos  in  the  state  was  the  moral  confusion 
that  filled  the  minds  of  the  Christians ;  distracted  by  such  an 
accumulation  of  disasters  and  by  the  moral  agony  wrought 
by  the  furious  conflict  of  so  many  warring  doctrines  among 
them,  they  tended  towards  that  peculiar  frame  of  mind  in 
which  a  new  doctrine  finds  it  easy  to  take  root,  making  a 
clean  sweep  of  such  a  bewildering  babel  and  striving  to 
reconstruct  faith  and  society  on  a  new  basis.  In  other  words 
the  people  of  Persia,  and  especially  the  Semitic  races,  were 
just  in  the  very  mental  condition  calculated  to  make  them 

1  Abu  Yiisuf  :    Kitab  al-Kharaj ,  p.  73. 

2  Id.  p.  74  and  Baladhuri.  pp.  71  (fin.),  79,  80. 

3  Caetani,  vol.  v.  pp.  361  (§  On  n.  1),  394-5.  457-  *  PP-  68~9- 


2o8  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

welcome  the  Islamic  revolution  and  urge  them  on  to  enthu- 
siastically embrace  the  new  and  rugged  creed,  which  with 
its  complete  and  virile  simplicity  swept  away  at  one  stroke 
all  those  dark  mists,  opened  the  soul  to  new,  alluring  and 
tangible  hopes,  and  promised  immediate  release  from  a 
miserable  state  of  servitude."  * 

But  the  Muslim  creed  was  most  eagerly  welcomed  by  the 
townsfolk,  the  industrial  classes  and  the  artisans,  whose 
occupations  made  them  impure  according  to  the  Zoroastrian 
creed,  because  in  the  pursuance  of  their  trade  or  occupations 
they  defiled  fire,  earth  or  water,  and  who  thus,  outcasts  in 
the  eyes  of  the  law  and  treated  with  scant  consideration  in 
consequence,  embraced  with  eagerness  a  creed  that  made 
them  at  once  free  men,  and  equal  in  a  brotherhood  of  faith.2 
Nor  were  the  conversions  from  Zoroastrianism  itself  less 
striking  :  the  fabric  of  the  National  Church  had  fallen  with 
a  crash  in  the  general  ruin  of  the  dynasty  that  had  before 
upheld  it;  having  no  other  centre  round  which  to  rally, 
the  followers  of  this  creed  would  find  the  transition  to  Islam 
a  simple  and  easy  one,  owing  to  the  numerous  points  of 
similarity  in  the  old  creed  and  the  new.  For  the  Persian 
could  find  in  the  Qur'an  many  of  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  his  old  faith,  though  in  a  rather  different  form  :  he  would 
meet  again  Ahuramazda  and  Ahriman  under  the  names  of 
Allah  and  Iblis ;  the  creation  of  the  world  in  six  periods; 
the  angels  and  the  demons;  the  story  of  the  primitive 
innocence  of  man;  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  the 
doctrine  of  heaven  and  hell.3  Even  in  the  details  of  daily 
worship  there  were  similarities  to  be  found  and  the  followers 
of  Zoroaster  when  they  adopted  Islam  were  enjoined  by 
their  new  faith  to  pray  five  times  a  day  just  as  they  had 
been  by  the  Avesta.4  Those  tribes  in  the  north  of  Persia 
that  had  stubbornlv  resisted  the  ecclesiastical  organisation 
of  the  state  religion,  on  the  ground  that  each  man  was  a 
priest  in  his  own  household  and  had  no  need  of  any  other, 
and  believing  in  a  supreme  being  and  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  taught  that  a  man  should  love  his  neighbour,  conquer 
his  passions,  and  strive  patiently  after  a  better  life — such 

1  Caetani,  vol.  ii.  p.  910.  2  A  de  Gobineau  (2),  pp.  306-10. 

3  Dozy  (1),  p.  157.  4  Haneberg,  p.  5. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   PERSIA  209 

men  could  have  needed  very  little  persuasion  to  induce  them 
to  accept  the  faith  of  the  Prophet.1  Islam  had  still  more 
points  of  contact  with  some  of  the  heretical  sects  of  Persia, 
that  had  come  under  the  influence  of  Christianity. 

In  addition  to  the  causes  above  enumerated  of  the  rapid 
spread  of  Islam  in  Persia,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
political  and  national  sympathies  of  the  conquered  race  were 
also  enlisted  on  behalf  of  the  new  religion  through  the 
marriage  of  Husayn,  the  son  of  'AH  with  Shahbanu,  one 
of  the  daughters  of  Yazdagird,  the  last  monarch  of  the 
Sasanid  dynasty.  In  the  descendants  of  Shahbanu  and 
Husayn  the  Persians  saw  the  heirs  of  their  ancient  kings 
and  the  inheritors  of  their  national  traditions,  and  in  this 
patriotic  feeling  may  be  found  the  explanation  of  the  intense 
devotion  of  the  Persians  to  the  'Arid  faction  and  the  first 
beginnings  of  Shi'ism  as  a  separate  sect.2 

That  this  widespread  conversion  was  not  due  to  force  or 
violence  is  evidenced  by  the  toleration  extended  to  those 
who  still  clung  to  their  ancient  faith.'  Even  to  the  present 
day  there  are  some  small  communities  of  fire-worshippers 
to  be  found  in  certain  districts  of  Persia,  and  though  these 
have  in  later  years  often  had  to  suffer  persecution,3  their 
ancestors  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Hi j rah  enjoyed  a 
remarkable  degree  of  toleration,  their  fire-temples  were 
respected,  and  we  even  read  of  a  Muhammadan  general  (in 
the  reign  of  al-Mu'tasim,  a.d.  833-842),  who  ordered  an 
imam  and  a  mu'adhdhin  to  be  flogged  because  they  had 
destroyed  a  fire-temple  in  Sughd  and  built  a  mosque  in  its 
place.4  In  the  tenth  century,  three  centuries  after  the 
conquest  of  the  country,  fire-temples  were  to  be  found  in 
'Iraq,  Fars,  Kirman,  Sijistan,  Khurasan,  Jibal,  Adharbayjan 
and  Arran,  i.  e.  in  almost  every  province  of  Persia.5     In  Fars 

1  Dozy  (i),  p.  191.     A.  de  Oobineau  (i),  p.  55. 

2  Les  croyances  Mazdeennes  dans  la  religion  Chiite,  par  Ahmed-Bey 
Agaefi.  (Transactions  of  the  Ninth  International  Congress  of  Orientalists, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  509-11.  London,  1893.)  For  other  points  of  contact,  see 
Goldziher  :  Islamisme  et  Parsisme.  (Revue  de  l'Histoire  des  Religions, 
xliii.  p.  1.  sqq.) 

3  Dosabhai  Framji  Karaka  :  History  of  the  Parsis,  vol.  i.  pp.  56-9, 
62-7.  (London,  1884.)  Nicolas  de  Khanikoff  says  that  there  were  12,000 
families  of  fire-worshippers  in  Kirmsin  at  the  end  of  the  18th  century. 
(Memoire  sur  la  partie  meridionale  de  l'Asie  centrale,  p.  193.     Paris,  1861.) 

4  Chwolsohn,  vol.  i.  p.  287.  5  Mas'udi,  vol.  iv.  p.  86. 

P 


210  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

itself  there  were  hardly  any  cities  or  districts  in  which  fire- 
temples  and  Magians  were  not  to  be  found.1  Al-Sharastani 
also  (writing  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century),  makes  mention 
of  a  fire-temple  at  Isfiniya,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Baghdad 

itself.2 

In  the  face  of  such  facts,  it  is  surely  impossible  to  attribute 
the  decay  of  Zoroastrianism  entirely  to  violent  conversions 
made  by  the  Muslim  conquerors.  The  number  of  Persians 
who  embraced  Islam  in  the  early  days  of  the  Arab  rule  was 
probably  very  large  from  the  various  reasons  given  above, 
but  the  late  survival  of  their  ancient  faith  and  the  occasional 
record  of  conversions  in  the  course  of  successive  centuries, 
render  it  probable  that  the  acceptance  of  Islam  was  both 
peaceful  and  voluntary.  About  the  close  of  the  eighth 
century,  Saman,  a  noble  of  Balkh,  having  received  assistance 
from  Asad  b.  'Abd-Allah,  the  governor  of  Khurasan, 
renounced  Zoroastrianism,  embraced  Islam  and  named  his 
son  Asad  after  his  protector  : .  it  is  from  this  convert  that 
dynasty  of  the  Samanids  (a.d.  874-999)  took  its  name. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  Karim  b. 
Shahriyar  was  the  first  king  of  the  Qabusiyyah  dynasty  who 
became  a  Musalman,  and  in  8y$  a  large  number  of  fire- 
worshippers  were  converted  to  Islam  in  Daylam  through  the 
influence  of  Nasir  al-Haqq  Abu  Muhammad.  In  the  follow- 
ing century,  about  a.d.  912,  Hasan  b.  'AH,  of  the  'Alid 
dynasty  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  who  is 
said  to  have  been  a  man  of  learning  and  intelligence  and 
well  acquainted  with  the  religious  opinions  of  different 
sects,  invited  the  inhabitants  of  Tabaristan  and  Daylam, 
who  were  partly  idolaters  and  partly  Magians,  to  accept 
Islam;  many  of  them  responded  to  his  call,  while  others 
persisted  in  their  former  state  of  unbelief.3  In  the  year 
a.h.  394  (a.d.  1003-1004),  a  famous  poet,  Abu'l  Hasan 
Mihyar,  a  native  of  Daylam,  who  had  been  a  fire-worshipper, 
was  converted  to  Islam  by  a  still  more  famous  poet,  the 
Sharif  al-Rida,  who  was  his  master  in  the  poetic  art.4 

It  was  probably  about  the  same  period  that  the  grand- 

1  Istakhrl,  pp.  ioo,  118.     Ibn  Hawqal,  pp.  189-190. 

2  Kitab  al-milal  wa'1-nihal,  edited  by  Cureton,  part  i.  p.  198. 

3  Mas'udi,  vol.  viii.  p.  279;    vol.  ix.  pp.  4-5. 

4  Ibn  Khallikan.  vol.  iii.  p.  517. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   PERSIA  211 

father  of  the  great  geographer,  Ibn  Khurdadbih,  was  con- 
verted through  the  influence  of  one  of  the  Barmecides,1 
whose  ancestor  had  been  likewise  a  Magian  and  high  priest 
of  the  great  Fire  Temple  of  Nawbahar  at  Balkh. 

Scanty  as  these  notices  of  conversion  are,  they  appear  to 
have  been  voluntary,  and  the  Zoroastrians  would  seem  to 
have  enjoyed  on  the  whole  toleration  for  the  exercise  of 
their  religion  up  to  the  close  of  the  'Abbasid  period.  With 
the  Mongol  invasion  a  darker  period  in  their  history  begins, 
and  the  miseries  which  the  Persian  Muslims  themselves 
suffered  seems  to  have  generated  in  them  a  spirit  of  fanatical 
intolerance  which  exposed  the  Zoroastrians  at  times  to 
cruel  sufferings.2 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  Persia  gave  birth  to  a 
movement  that  is  of  interest  in  the  missionary  history  of 
Islam,  viz.  the  sect  of  the  Isma'ilians.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  enter  into  a  history  of  this  sect  or  of  the  theological 
position  taken  up  by  its  followers,  or  of  the  social  and 
political  factors  that  lent  it  strength,  but  it  demands  atten- 
tion here  on  account  of  the  marvellous  missionary  organisa- 
tion whereby  it  was  propagated.  The  founder  of  this 
organisation — which  rivals  that  of  the  Jesuits  for  the  keen 
insight  into  human  nature  it  displays  and  the  consummate 
skill  with  which  the  doctrines  of  the  sect  were  accommodated 
to  varying  capacities  and  prejudices — was  a  certain  'Abd 
Allah  b.  Maymun,  who  early  in  the  ninth  century  infused 
new  life  into  the  Isma'ilians.  He  sent  out  his  missionaries 
in  all  directions  under  various  guises,  very  frequently  as 
sufis  but  also  as  merchants  and  traders  and  the  like ;  they 
were  instructed  to  be  all  things  to  all  men  and  to  win  over 
different  classes  of  men  to  allegiance  to  the  grandmaster  of 
their  sect,  by  speaking  to  each  man,  as  it  were,  in  his  own 
language,  and  accommodating  their  teaching  to  the  varying 
capacities  and  opinions  of  their  hearers.  They  captivated 
the  ignorant  multitude  by  the  performance  of  marvels  that 
were  taken  for  miracles  and  by  mysterious  utterances  that 
excited  their  curiosity.     To  the  devout  they  appeared  as 

1  Kitab  al-Fihrist,  ed.  Flugel,  p.  149  (1-  2). 

2  For  a  comprehensive  sketch  of  their  condition  under  Muslim  rule,  see 
D.  Menant:  Les  Zoroastriens  de  Perse.  (R.  du  M.  M.  iii.  pp.  193  sqq., 
p.  421  sqq.) 


212  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

models  of  virtue  and  religious  zeal;  to  the  mystics  they 
revealed  the  hidden  meaning  of  popular  teachings  and 
initiated  them  into  various  grades  of  occultism  according 
to  their  capacity.  Taking  advantage  of  the  eager  looking- 
forward  to  a  deliverer  that  was  common  to  so  many  faiths 
of  the  time,  they  declared  to  the  Musalmans  the  approaching 
advent  of  the  Imam  Mahdi,  to  the  Jews  that  of  the  Messiah, 
and  to  the  Christians  that  of  the  Comforter,  but  taught  that 
the  aspirations  of  each  could  alone  be  realised  in  the  coming 
of  'AH  as  the  great  deliverer.  With  the  Shi'ah,  the  Isma- 
'ilian missionary  was  to  put  himself  forward  as  the  zealous 
partisan  of  all  the  Shf  ah  doctrine,  was  to  dwell  upon  the 
cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  Sunnls  towards  'AH  and  his 
sons,  and  liberally  abuse  the  Sunni  Khalifahs ;  having  thus 
prepared  the  way,  he  was  to  insinuate,  as  the  necessary 
completion  of  the  Shi'ah  system  of  faith,  the  more  esoteric 
doctrines  of  the  Isma'ilian  sect.  In  dealing  with  the  Jew, 
he  was  to  speak  with  contempt  of  both  Christians  and 
Muslims  and  agree  with  his  intended  convert  in  still  looking 
forward  to  a  promised  Messiah,  but  gradually  lead  him  to 
believe  that  this  promised  Messiah  could  be  none  other  than 
'AH,  the  great  Messiah  of  the  Isma'ilian  system.  If  he 
sought  to  win  over  the  Christian,  he  was  to  dwell  upon  the 
obstinacy  of  the  Jews  and  the  ignorance  of  the  Muslims,  to 
profess  reverence  for  the  chief  articles  of  the  Christian  creed, 
but  gently  hint  that  they  were  symbolic  and  pointed  to  a 
deeper  meaning,  to  which  the  Isma'ilian  system  alone  could 
supply  the  key ;  he  was  also  cautiously  to  suggest  that  the 
Christians  had  somewhat  misinterpreted  the  doctrine  of  the 
Paraclete  and  that  it  was  in  'All  that  the  true  Paraclete 
was  to  be  found.  Similarly  the  Isma'ilian  missionaries  who 
made  their  way  into  India  endeavoured  to  make  their 
doctrines  acceptable  to  the  Hindus,  by  representing  'AH 
as  the  promised  tenth  Avatar  of  Visnu  who  was  to  come 
from  the  West,  i.  e.  (they  averred)  from  Alamiit.  They 
also  wrote  a  Mahdi  Purana  and  composed  hymns  in  imita- 
tion of  those  of  the  Vamacarins  or  left-hand  Saktas,  whose 
mysticism  already  predisposed  their  minds  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  esoteric  doctrines  of  the  Isma'Ilians.1 

1  Khoja  Vrittant,   pp.    141-8.      For  a  further  account  of    Isma'ilian 
missionaries  in  India,  see  chap.  ix. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CENTRAL  ASIA      213 

By  such  means  as  these  an  enormous  number  of  persons 
of  different  faiths  were  united  together  to  push  forward  an 
enterprise,  the  real  aim  of  which  was  known  to  very  few. 
The  aspirations  of  'Abd  Allah  b.  Maymun  seem  to  have 
been  entirely  political,  but  as  the  means  he  adopted  were 
religious  and  the  one  common  bond — if  any — that  bound 
his  followers  together  was  the  devout  expectation  of  the 
coming  of  the  Imam  Mahdi,  the  missionary  activity  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  this  sect  deserves  this  brief 
mention  in  these  pages.1 

The  history  of  the  spread  of  Islam  in  the  countries  of 
Central  Asia  to  the  north  of  Persia  presents  little  in  the  way 
of  missionary  activity.  When  Qutaybah  b.  Muslim  went 
to  Samarqand,  he  found  many  idols  there,  whose  worshippers 
maintained  that  any  man  who  dared  outrage  them  would 
perish;  the  Muslim  conqueror,  undeterred  by  such  super- 
stitious fears,  set  fire  to  the  idols ;  whereupon  a  number  of 
persons  embraced  Islam.2  There  is,  however,  but  scanty 
record  of  such  conversions  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Muslim  advance  into  Central  Asia;  moreover  the  people 
of  this  country  seem  often  to  have  pretended  to  embrace 
Islam  for  a  time  and  then  to  have  thrown  off  the  mask 
and  renounced  their  allegiance  to  the  caliph  as  soon  as 
the  conquering  armies  were  withdrawn,3  and  it  was  not 
until  Qutaybah  had  forcibly  occupied  Bukhara  for  the 
fourth  time  that  he  succeeded  in  compelling  the  inhabitants 
to  conform  to  the  faith  of  their  conquerors. 

In  Bukhara  and  Samarqand  the  opposition  to  the  new 
faith  was  so  violent  and  obstinate  that  none  but  those  who 
had  embraced  Islam  were  allowed  to  carry  arms,  and  for 
many  years  the  Muslims  dared  not  appear  unarmed  in  the 
mosques  or  other  public  places,  while  spies  had  to  be  set  to 
keep  a  watch  on  the  new  converts.  The  conquerors  made 
various  efforts  to  gain  proselytes,  and  even  tried  to  encourage 
attendance  at  the  Friday  prayers  in  the  mosques  by  rewards 
of  money,  and  allowed  the  Qur'an  to  be  recited  in  Persian 
instead  of  in  Arabic,  in  order  that  it  might  be  intelligible  to 
all.4 

1  Le  Bon  Silvestre  De  Sacy  :  Expose  de  la  Religion  des  Druzes,  tome  i. 
pp.  lxvii-lxxvi,  cxlviii-clxii.  2  Baladhuri,  p.  421. 

,      a  Narshakhl,  p.  46.  *  Id.  p.  47. 


214  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

The  progress  of  Islam  in  Transoxania  was  certainly  very 
slow  :  some  of  the  inhabitants  accepted  the  invitation  of 
'Umar  II  (a.d.  717-720)  to  embrace  Islam,1  and  large 
numbers  were  converted  through  the  preaching  of  a  certain 
Abu  Sayda.  who  commenced  this  mission  in  Samarqand  in 
the  reign  of  Hisham  (724-743), 2  but  it  was  not  until  the 
reign  of  Al-Mu'tasim  (a.d.  833-842)  that  Islam  was  generally 
adopted  there,3  one  of  the  reason  probably  being  the  more 
intimate  relations  established  at  this  time  with  the  then 
capital  of  the  Muhammadan  world,  Baghdad,  through  the 
enormous  numbers  of  Turks  that  had  flocked  in  thousands 
to  join  the  army  of  the  caliph.4  Islam  having  thus  gained  a 
footing  among  the  Turkish  tribes  seems  to  have  made  but 
slow  progress  until  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century,  when 
the  conversion  of  some  of  their  chieftains  to  Islam,  like  that 
of  Clovis  and  other  barbarian  kings  of  Northern  Europe  to 
Christianity,  led  their  clansmen  to  follow  their  example  in 
a  body. 

Pious  legends  have  grown  up  to  supply  the  lack  of  sober 
historical  record  of  such  conversions.  The  city  of  Khiva 
reveres  as  its  national  saint  a  Muslim  wrestler — Pahlavan — 
who  was  in  the  service  of  a  heathen  king  of  Khwarizm.  The 
king  of  India,  hearing  of  the  fame  of  this  Pahlavan,  sent 
his  own  court  wrestler  with  a  challenge  to  the  king  of 
Khwarizm.  A  day  was  fixed  for  the  trial  of  strength  and 
the  nobles  and  people  of  Khiva  were  summoned  to  view  the 
spectacle;  the  vanquished  man  was  to  have  his  head  cut 
off.  On  the  day  before,  the  saintly  Pahlavan  was  praying 
in  the  mosque  when  he  overheard  the  prayer  of  an  old 
woman  :  "  0  God,  suffer  not  my  son  to  be  beaten  by  this 
invincible  Pahlavan,  for  I  have  no  other  child."  Touched 
with  compassion  for  the  mother,  Pahlavan  lets  the  Indian 
wrestler  win  the  da}/;  the  enraged  king  orders  his  head  to 
be  cut  off,  but  at  that  very  moment  the  horse  on  which  the 
king  is  sitting,  bolts,  carrying  his  master  straight  towards 
a  dangerous  precipice.  Pahlavan  springs  forward,  catches 
the  horse  and  rescues  the  king  from  a  horrible  death.  In 
gratitude  the  king  embraces  the  true  faith,  and  the  saintly 

1  Baladhuri,  p.  426.  2  Tabari,  ii.  pp.  1507  sqq. 

3  Baladhuri,  p.  431.  4  August  Muiler,  vol.  i.  p.  520. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CENTRAL   ASIA    215 

wrestler,  full  of  joy,  goes  away  into  the  desert  and  becomes 

a  hermit.1 

A  strange  legend  is  told  of  the  conversion  of  Satuq  Bughra 
Khan,  the  founder  of  the  Muhammadan  dynasty  of  the  Ilik- 
Khans  of  Kashgar,  about  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century.   A 
prince  of  the  Samanid  house,  Khwajah  Abu'1-Nasr  Samani,  a 
man  of  great  piety  and  humility  of  character,  finding  no  scope 
for  the  exercise  of  his  talent  for  administration,  resolved  to 
become  a  merchant,  with  the  purpose  of  spreading  the  true 
faith  in  the  lands  of  the  unbelievers.     Instead  of  trying  to 
acquire  a  fortune  by  his  commercial  enterprises,  he  devoted 
all  his  gains  to  the  furtherance  of  his  proselytising  efforts. 
One  night  the  Prophet  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  saying  : 
"  Arise,   and   go   into   Turkistan   where   the   prince   Satuq 
Bughra  Khan  only  awaits  your   coming  to  be  converted  to 
Islam."     The  young  prince  had  in  a  similar  manner  been 
warned  in  a  vision  to  expect  the  arrival  of  an  instructor  in 
the  faith,  and  when  some  days  later  he  met  Abu'1-Nasr 
Samani  he  was  prepared  to  accept  his  teaching  and  become 
a  Musalman.     This  legend  would  appear  to  have  been  based 
on  the  historic  fact  that   Islam  made  its  way  from  the 
Samanid  kingdom  into  the  neighbouring  country  of  Turkis- 
tan, and  the  example  of  the  ruler  seems  to  have  been  followed 
by  his  subjects,  for  in  a.d.  960  as  many  as  200,000  tents 
of  the  Turks,  i.e.  probably  the  greater  part  of  the  Turkish 
population  of  Bughra  Khan's  kingdom,  professed  the  faith  of 
Islam.2     Legend  credits  him  with  miraculous  powers  in  his 
wars  against  the  heathen,  when  a  devouring  flame  would 
issue  from  his  mouth  and  the  sword   that  he  brandished 
would  become  forty  feet  long.     By  the  time  he  had  reached 
the  age  of  ninety-six,  the  terror  of  his  sword  is  said  to  have 
converted  the  unbelievers  from  the  banks  of  the  Oxus  in  the 
south  to  Quraquram  in  the  north,  and  just  before  his  death 
he  is  said  to  have  led  his  victorious  army  into  China,  and 
spread  Islam  as  far  as  Turfan.3     This  picturesque  account  of 

1  Cahun,  p.  150. 

2  Ibn  al-Athlr,  vol.  viii.  p.  396  (11.  19-20.)     Grenard,  pp.  7  sq.,  42-3. 

3  Grenard,  pp.  9-10.  "  D'une  guerre  d'ambition  [la  tradition]  fait  une 
guerre  sainte,  elle  attribue  a  Satok  Boghra  KMn  une  conquete  qui  a  ete 
accomplie  reellement  par  son  douzieme  successeur;  par  une  confusion 
absurde,  elle  donne  le  nom  de  ce  dernier  a  l'oncle  infidele  de  Satok.  Non 
contente  de  reduire  deux  personnages  ea  un  seul,  elle  prete  au  meme  prince 


216  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

a  dynastic  struggle  with  the  Buddhist  kingdom  of  Khotan 
credits  the  hero  with  a  measure  of  success  which  was  not 
really  achieved  until  the  fourteenth  century.  How  limited 
the  success  of  Satuq  Bughra  Khan  really  was,  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  when  his  successors  among  the  Ilik-Khans 
sought  in  1026  to  contract  matrimonial  alliances  with 
princesses  of  the  house  of  Mahmud  of  Ghazna,  Mahmud 
replied  that  he  was  a  Musalman,  while  they  were  unbelievers, 
and  that  it  was  not  the  custom  to  give  the  sisters  and 
daughters  of  Musalmans  in  marriage  to  unbelievers,  but 
that,  if  they  would  embrace  Islam,  the  matter  would  be 
considered.1  A  few  years  later,  in  1041-1042,  a  number  of 
Turks  who  were  still  heathen  and  living  in  Tibetan  territory 
sought  permission  from  Arslan  Khan  b.  Qadr  Mian  to 
settle  in  his  dominions,  having  heard  of  the  justice  and 
mildness  of  his  rule ;  when  they  arrived  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Balasaghun  2  he  sent  a  message  to  them  urging  them 
to  accept  Islam ;  but  they  refused,  and  as  he  found  them  to 
be  peaceable  and  obedient  subjects,  he  left  them  alone. 
There  is  no  record  of  their  conversion,  which  probably 
ensued  in  course  of  time ;  but  they  can  hardly  be  identified 
with  the  group  of  ten  thousand  tents  of  infidel  Turks  who 
embraced  Islam  in  the  following  year,  as  these  latter  are 
expressly  stated  to  have  harried  and  plundered  the  Musal- 
mans before  their  conversion.3  The  invasion  of  the  Qara 
Khitay  into  Turkistan  4  dealt  a  severe  blow  to  the  power  of 
Islam,  and  as  late  as  the  thirteenth  century  the  reports 
of  European  travellers  show  that  there  were  still  important 
groups  of  Buddhists,  Manichasans  and  Christians  in  these 
parts.5 

Of  supreme  importance  to  Islam  was  the  conversion  of 
the  Saljuq  Turks,  but  no  record  of  their  conversion  remains 
beyond  the  statement  that  in  a.d.  956  Saljuq  migrated  from 
Turkistan  with  his  clan  to  the  province  of  Bukhara,  where 
he  and  his  people  enthusiastically  embraced  Islam.6     This 

une  march e  sur  Tourfan,  c'est-a-dire  contre  les  Ouigour,  qui  est  en  effet 
l'oeuvre  d'un  troisieme."     (Id.  p.  50.)  x  Raverty,  p.  905. 

2  This  was  the  capital  of  the  Khans  of  Turkistan  during  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries,  but  the  exact  site  is  uncertain. 

8  Narshakhl,  pp.  234-5.  4  Raverty,  pp.  925-7. 

&  Grenard,  p.  76.  6  Raverty,  p.  117. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CENTRAL   ASIA      217 

was  the  origin  of  the  famous  Saljuq  Turks,  whose  wars  and 
conquests  revived  the  fading  glory  of  the  Muhammadan 
arms  and  united  into  one  empire  the  Muslim  kingdoms  of 
Western  Asia. 

When  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  Saljuq 
empire  had  lost  all  power  except  in  Asia  Minor,  and  when 
Muhammad  Ghuri  was  extending  his  empire  from  Khurasan 
eastward  across  the  north  of  India,  there  was  a  great  revival 
of  the  Muslim  faith  among  the  Afghans  and  their  country 
was  overrun  by  Arab  preachers  and  converts  from  India, 
who  set  about  the  task  of  proselytising  with  remarkable 
energy  and  boldness.1  The  traditions  of  the  Afghans 
represent  Islam  as  having  been  peaceably  introduced 
among  them.  They  say  that  in  the  first  century  of  the 
Hijrah  they  occupied  the  Ghur  country  to  the  east  of 
Herat,  and  that  Khalid  b.  Walid  came  to  them  there 
with  the  tidings  of  Islam  and  invited  them  to  join  the 
standard  of  the  Prophet;  he  returned  to  Muhammad 
accompanied  by  a  deputation  of  six  or  seven  representa- 
tive men  of  the  Afghan  people,  with  their  followers,  and 
these,  when  they  went  back  to  their  own  country,  set 
to  work  to  convert  their  fellow-tribesmen.2  This  tradition 
is,  however,  devoid  of  any  historical  foundation,  and  the 
earliest  authentic  record  of  conversion  to  Islam  from  among 
the  Afghans  seems  to  be  that  of  a  king  of  Kabul  in  the  reign 
of  al-Ma'mun.3  His  successors,  however,  seem  to  have 
relapsed  to  Buddhism,  for  when  Ya'qub  b.  Layth,  the 
founder  of  the  Saffarid  dynasty,  extended  his  conquests  as 
far  as  Kabul  in  871,  he  found  the  ruler  of  the  land  to  be 
an  "  idolater,"  and  Kabul  now  became  really  Muhammadan 
for  the  first  time,  the  Afghans  probably  being  quite  willing 
to  take  service  in  the  army  of  so  redoubtable  a  conqueror 
as  Ya'qub  b.  Layth,4  but  it  was  not  until  after  the  conquests 
of  Sabaktigin  and  Mahmud  of  Ghazna  that  Islam  became 
established  throughout  Afghanistan. 

Of  the  further  history  of  Islam  in  Persia  and  Central  Asia 
some  details  will  be  found  in  the  following  chapter. 

1  Bellew,  p.  96.  2  Id.  pp.  15-16. 

3  Baladhuri,  p.  402.  4  August  Muller,  vol.  ii.  p.  29. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG   THE   MONGOLS 

AND   TATARS. 

There  is  no  event  in  the  history  of  Islam  that  for  terror 
and  desolation  can  be  compared  to  the  Mongol  conquest. 
Like  an  avalanche,  the  hosts  of  Chingiz  Khan  swept  over 
the  centres  of  Muslim  culture  and  civilisation,  leaving 
behind  them  bare  deserts  and  shapeless  ruins  where  before 
had  stood  the  palaces  of  stately  cities,  girt  about  with  gardens 
and  fruitful  corn-land.  When  the  Mongol  army  had  marched 
out  of  the  city  of  Herat,  a  miserable  remnant  of  forty  persons 
crept  out  of  their  hiding-places  and  gazed  horror-stricken 
on  the  ruins  of  their  beautiful  city — all  that  were  left  out 
of  a  population  of  over  100,000.  In  Bukhara,  so  famed  for 
its  men  of  piety  and  learning,  the  Mongols  stabled  their 
horses  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  mosques  and  tore  up 
the  Qur'ans  to  serve  as  litter ;  those  of  the  inhabitants  who 
were  not  butchered  were  carried  away  into  captivity  and 
their  city  reduced  to  ashes.  Such  too  was  the  fate  of 
Samarqand,  Balkh  and  many  another  city  of  Central  Asia, 
which  had  been  the  glories  of  Islamic  civilisation  and  the 
dwelling-places  of  holy  men  and  the  seats  of  sound  learning 
— such  too  the  fate  of  Baghdad  that  for  centuries  had  been 
the  capital  of  the  'Abbasid  dynasty. 

Well  might  the  Muhammadan  historian  shudder  to  relate 
such  horrors ;  when  Ibn  al-Athir  comes  to  describe  the  in- 
roads of  the  Mongols  into  the  countries  of  Islam,  "  for  many 
years,"  he  tells  us,  "  I  shrank  from  giving  a  recital  of  these 
events  on  account  of  their  magnitude  and  my  abhorrence. 
Even  now  I  come  reluctant  to  the  task,  for  who  would  deem 
it  a  light  thing  to  sing  the  death-song  of  Islam  and  of  the 
Muslims,   or  find  it   easy  to  tell   this   tale  ?     O  that   my 

218 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE   MONGOLS    219 

mother  had  not  given  me  birth  !  '  Oh,  would  that  I  had 
died  ere  this,  and  been  a  thing  forgotten,  forgotten  quite  !  '  * 
Many  friends  have  urged  me  and  still  I  stood  irresolute; 
but  I  saw  that  it  was  of  no  profit  to  forego  the  task  and  so 
I  thus  resume.  I  shall  have  to  describe  events  so  terrible 
and  calamities  so  stupendous  that  neither  day  nor  night 
have  ever  brought  forth  the  like;  they  fell  on  all  nations, 
but  on  the  Muslims  more  than  all ;  and  were  one  to  say  that 
since  God  created  Adam  the  world  has  not  seen  the  like, 
he  would  but  tell  the  truth,  for  history  has  nothing  to  relate 
that  at  all  approaches  it.  Among  the  greatest  calamities 
in  history  is  the  slaughter  that  Nebuchadnezzar  wrought 
among  the  children  of  Israel  and  his  destruction  of  the 
Temple;  but  what  is  Jerusalem  in  comparison  to  the 
countries  that  these  accursed  ones  laid  waste,  every  town 
of  which  was  far  greater  than  Jerusalem,  and  what  were 
the  children  of  Israel  in  comparison  to  those  they  slew,  since 
the  inhabitants  of  one  of  the  cities  they  destroyed  were 
greater  in  numbers  than  all  the  children  of  Israel  ?  Let 
us  hope  that  the  world  may  never  see  the  like  again."  2 
But  Islam  was  to  rise  again  from  the  ashes  of  its  former 
grandeur  and  through  its  preachers  win  over  these  savage 
conquerors  to  the  acceptance  of  the  faith.  This  was  a 
task  for  the  missionary  energies  of  Islam  that  was  rendered 
more  difficult  from  the  fact  that  there  were  two  powerful 
competitors  in  the  field.  The  spectacle  of  Buddhism, 
Christianity  and  Islam  emulously  striving  to  win  the 
allegiance  of  the  fierce  conquerors  that  had  set  their  feet 
on  the  necks  of  adherents  of  these  great  missionary  religions, 
is  one  that  is  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Before  entering  on  a  recital  of  this  struggle,  it  will  be 
well  in  order  to  the  comprehension  of  what  is  to  follow 
briefly  to  glance  at  the  partition  of  the  Mongol  empire 
after  the  death  of  Chingiz  Khan,  when  it  was  split  up  into 
four  sections  and  divided  among  his  sons.  His  third  son, 
Ogotay,  succeeded  his  father  as  Khaqan  and  received  as 
his  share  the  eastern  portion  of  the  empire,  in  which  Qubilay 
afterwards  included  the  whole  of  China.  Chaghatay  the 
second  son  took  the  middle  kingdom.     Batii,  the  son  of 

1  Qur'an,  xix.  23.  2  Ibn  al-Athir,  vol.  xii.  pp.  233-4. 


220  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

his  first-born  Juji,  ruled  the  western  portion  as  Khan  of 
the  Golden  Horde;  Tuluy  the  fourth  son  took  Persia,  to 
which  Hulagii,  who  founded  the  dynasty  of  the  Ilkhans, 
added  a  great  part  of  Asia  Minor. 

The  primitive  religion  of  the  Mongols  was  Shamanism, 
which  while  recognising  a  supreme  God,  offered  no  prayers 
to  Him,  but  worshipped  a  number  of  inferior  divinities, 
especially  the  evil  spirits  whose  powers  for  harm  had  to  be 
deprecated  by  means  of  sacrifices,  and  the  souls  of  ancestors 
who  were  considered  to  exercise  an  influence  on  the  lives 
of  their  descendants.  To  propitiate  these  powers  of  the 
heaven  and  of  the  lower  world,  recourse  was  had  to  the 
Shamans,  wizards  or  medicine-men,  who  were  credited  with 
possessing  mysterious  influence  over  the  elements  and  the 
spirits  of  the  departed.  Their  religion  was  not  one  that 
was  calculated  to  withstand  long  the  efforts  of  a  prosely- 
tising faith,  possessed  of  a  systematic  theology  capable 
of  satisfying  the  demands  of  the  reason  and  an  organised 
body  of  religious  teachers,  when  once  the  Mongols  had  been 
brought  into  contact  with  civilised  races,  had  responded 
to  their  civilising  influences  and  begun  to  pass  out  of  their 
nomadic  barbarism.  It  so  happened  that  the  civilised 
races  with  which  the  conquest  of  the  Mongols  brought  them 
in  contact  comprised  large  numbers  of  Buddhists,  Christians 
and  Muhammadans,  and  the  adherents  of  these  three  great 
missionary  faiths  entered  into  rivalry  with  one  another  for 
the  conversion  of  their  conquerors.  When  not  carried  away 
by  the  furious  madness  for  destruction  and  insult  that 
usually  characterised  their  campaigns, the  Shamanist  Mongols 
showed  themselves  remarkably  tolerant  of  other  religions, 
whose  priests  were  exempted  from  taxation  and  allowed 
perfect  freedom  of  worship.  Buddhist  priests  held  con- 
troversies with  the  Shamans  in  the  presence  of  Chingiz 
Khan;  and  at  the  courts  of  Mangu  Khan  and  Qubilay  the 
Buddhist  and  Christian  priests  and  the  Muslim  Imams  alike 
enjoyed  the  patronage  of  the  Mongol  prince.1  In  the 
reign  of  the  latter  monarch  the  Mongols  in  China  began 
to  yield  to  the  powerful  influences  of  the  surrounding 
Buddhism,  and  by  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century 

1  William  of  Rubruck,  pp.  182,  191.     C.  d'Ohsson,  tome  ii.  p.  48S. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG   THE   MONGOLS    221 

the  Buddhist  faith  seems  to  have  gained  a  complete  ascend- 
ancy over  them.1  It  was  the  Lamas  of  Tibet  who  showed 
themselves  most  zealous  in  this  work  of  conversion,  and 
the  people  of  Mongolia  to  the  present  day  cling  to  the  same 
faith,  as  do  the  Kalmuks  who  migrated  to  Russia  in  the 
seventeenth  century. 

Although  Buddhism  made  itself  finally  supreme  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  empire,  at  first  the  influence  of  the 
Christian  Church  was  by  no  means  inconsiderable  and  great 
hopes  were  entertained  of  the  conversion  of  the  Mongols. 
The  Nestorian  missionaries  in  the  seventh  century  had 
carried  the  knowledge  of  the  Christian  faith  from  west  to 
east  across  Asia  as  far  as  the  north  of  China,  and  scattered 
communities  were  still  to  be  found  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  famous  Prester  John,  around  whose  name  cluster  so 
many  legends  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  chief  of  the  Karaits,  a  Christian  Tartar  tribe  living  to 
the  south  of  Lake  Baikal.  When  this  tribe  was  conquered 
by  Chingiz  Khan,  he  married  one  of  the  daughters  of  the 
then  chief  of  the  tribe,  while  his  son  Ogotay  took  a  wife 
from  the  same  family.  Ogotay's  son,  Kuyiik,  although  he 
did  not  himself  become  a  Christian,  showed  great  favour 
towards  this  faith,  to  which  his  chief  minister  and  one  of 
his  secretaries  belonged.  The  Nestorian  priests  were  held 
in  high  favour  at  his  court  and  he  received  an  embassy 
from  Pope  Innocent  IV.2  The  Christian  powers  both  of 
the  East  and  the  West  looked  to  the  Mongols  to  assist  them 
in  their  wars  against  the  Musalmans.  It  was  Hay  ton, 
the  Christian  King  of  Armenia,  who  was  mainly  instru- 
mental in  persuading  Mangu  Khan  to  despatch  the  expedi- 
tion that  sacked  Baghdad  under  the  leadership  of  Hulagfi,3 
the  influence  of  whose  Christian  wife  led  him  to  show  much 
favour  to  the  Christians,  and  especially  to  the  Nestorians. 
Many  of  the  Mongols  who  occupied  the  countries  of  Armenia 
and  Georgia  were  converted  by  the  Christians  of  these 
countries  and  received  baptism.4  The  marvellous  tales 
of  the  greatness  and  magnificence  of  Prester  John,  that 
fired  the  imagination  of  mediaeval  Europe,  had  given  rise 

1  De  Guignes,  tome  iii.  pp.  200,  203.  2  Id.  vol.  iii.  p.  115. 

3  Id.  p.  125.     Cahun,  p.  391.  *  Klaproth,  p.    204. 


222  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

to  a  belief  that  the  Mongols  were  Christians — a  belief  which 
was  further  strengthened  by  the  false  reports  that  reached 
Europe  of  the  conversion  of  various  Mongol  princes  and 
their  zeal  for  the  Christian  cause.  It  was  under  this  delusion 
that  St.  Louis  sent  an  ambassador,  William  of  Rubruck, 
to  exhort  the  great  Khaqan  to  persevere  in  his  supposed 
efforts  for  the  spread  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  these 
reports  were  soon  discovered  to  be  without  any  foundation 
in  fact,  though  William  of  Rubruck  found  that  the  Christian 
religion  was  freely  tolerated  at  the  court  of  Mangu  Khan, 
and  the  adhesion  of  some  few  Mongols  to  this  faith  made 
the  Christian  priests  hopeful  of  still  further  conquests. 
But  so  long  as  Latins,  Greeks,  Nestorians  and  Armenians 
carried  their  theological  differences  into  the  very  midst 
of  the  Mongol  camp,  there  was  very  little  hope  of  much 
progress  being  made,  and  it  is  probably  this  very  want  of 
union  among  the  preachers  of  Christianity  that  caused  their 
efforts  to  meet  with  so  little  success  among  the  Mongols ; 
so  that  while  they  were  fighting  among  one  another, 
Buddhism  and  Islam  were  gaining  a  firm  footing  for  them- 
selves. The  haughty  pretensions  of  the  Roman  Pontiff 
soon  caused  the  proud  conquerors  of  half  the  world  to 
withdraw  from  his  emissaries  what  little  favour  they  might 
at  first  have  been  inclined  to  show,  and  many  other  circum- 
stances contributed  to  the  failure  of  the  Roman  mission.1 

As  for  the  Nestorians,  who  had  been  first  in  the  field, 
they  appear  to  have  been  too  degraded  and  apathetic  to 
take  much  advantage  of  their  opportunities.  Of  the 
Nestorians  in  China,  William  of  Rubruck  2  says  that  they 
were  very  ignorant  and  could  not  even  understand  their 
service  books,  which  were  written  in  Syriac.  He  accuses 
them  of  drunkenness,  polygamy  and  covetousness,  and 
makes  an  unfavourable  comparison  between  their  lives 
and  those  of  the  Buddhist  priests.  Their  bishop  paid 
them  very  rare  visits — sometimes  only  once  in  fifty  years  : 

1  C.  d'Ohsson,  tome  ii.  pp.  226-7.     Cahun,  p.  40S  sq. 

2  Of  this  writer  Yule  says,  "  He  gives  an  unfavourable  account  of 
the  literature  and  morals  of  their  clergy,  which  deserves  more  weight  than 
such  statements  regarding  those  looked  upon  as  schismatics  generally  do ; 
for  the  narrative  of  Rubruquis  gives  one  the  impression  of  being  written 
by  a  thoroughly  honest  and  intelligent  person."  (Cathay  and  the  Way 
Thither,  vol.  i.  p.  xcviii.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE   MONGOLS    223 

on  such  occasions  he  would  ordain  all  the  male  children, 
even  the  babies  in  their  cradles.  The  priests  were  eaten 
up  with  simony,  made  a  traffic  of  the  sacred  rites  of  their 
Church  and  concerned  themselves  more  with  money-making 
than  with  the  propagation  of  the  faith.1 

In  the  western  parts  of  the  Mongol  empire,  where  the 
Christians  looked  to  the  newly-risen  power  to  help  them  in 
their  wars  with  the  Musalmans  and  to  secure  for  them 
the  possession  of  the  Holy  Land,  the  alliance  between  the 
Christians  and  the  ilkhans  of  Persia  was  short-lived,  as 
the  victories  of  Baybars,  the  Mamlfik  Sultan  of  Egypt 
(1260-1277)  and  his  alliance  with  Baraka  Khan,  gave  the 
Ilkhans  quite  enough  to  do  to  look  after  their  own  interests. 
The  excesses  that  the  Christians  of  Damascus  and  other 
cities  committed  during  the  brief  period  in  which  they 
enjoyed  the  favour  of  this  Mongol  dynasty  of  Persia,  did 
much  to  discredit  the  Christian  name  in  Western  Asia.2 

In  the  course  of  the  struggle,  the  adherents  of  either 
faith  were  at  times  guilty  of  much  brutality.  One  example 
may  be  taken  from  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century 
as  told  by  al-Juzjani,  who  claims  to  have  heard  the 
story,  while  in  Delhi,  from  the  lips  of  a  certain  Sayyid 
Ashraf  al-Din  who  had  come  there  from  Samarqand. 
"The  eminent  Sayyid  thus  related,  that  one  of  the  Chris- 
tians of  Samarqand  attained  unto  the  felicity  of  Islam, 
and  the  Musalmans  of  Samarqand,  who  are  staunch  in 
their  faith,  paid  him  great  honour  and  reverence,  and 
conferred  great  benefits  upon  him.  Unexpectedly,  one  of 
the  haughty  Mongol  infidels  of  China,  who  possessed  power 
and  influence,  and  the  inclinations  of  which  accursed  one 
were  towards  the  Christian  faith,  arrived  at  Samarqand. 
The  Christians  of  that  city  repaired  to  that  Mongol,  and 
complained  saying  :  '  The  Musalmans  are  enjoining  our 
children  to  turn  away  from  the  Christian  faith  and  from 
serving  Jesus — on  whom  be  peace — and  calling  upon  them 
to  follow  the  religion  of  Mustafa  3— on  whom  be  peace— 
and,  in  case  that  gate  becomes  unclosed,  the  whole  of  our 
dependents  will  turn  away  from  the  Christian  faith.      By 

1  William  of  Rubruck,  pp.  i58~9- 

2  Maqrizi  (2),  tome  i.  ire  partie,  pp.  98,  106. 

3  The  Chosen  One — Muhammad. 


224  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

thy  power  and  authority  devise  a  settlement  of  our  case.' 
The  Mongol  commanded  that  the  youth,  who  had  turned 
Musalman,  should  be  produced,  and  they  tried  with  blandish- 
ment and  kindness,  and  money  and  wealth  to  induce  the 
newly-converted  Musalman  to  recant,  but  he  refused  to 
recant,  and  put  not  off  from  his  heart  and  spirit  that 
garment  of  freshness — the  Muslim  faith.  The  Mongol 
ruler  then  turned  over  a  leaf  in  his  temper,  and  began 
to  speak  of  severe  punishment;  and  every  punishment, 
which  it  was  in  his  power  to  inflict,  or  his  severity  to 
devise,  he  inflicted  upon  the  youth,  who,  from  his  great 
zeal  for  the  faith  of  Islam,  did  not  recant,  and  did  not  in 
any  way  cast  away  from  his  hand  the  sweet  draught  of 
religion  through  the  blow  of  infidel  perverseness.  As  the 
youth  continued  firm  in  the  true  faith,  and  paid  no  heed 
to  the  promises  and  threats  of  that  depraved  company, 
the  accursed  Mongol  commanded  that  they  should  bring 
the  youth  to  public  punishment ;  and  he  departed  from  the 
world  in  the  felicity  of  religion — may  God  reward  and 
requite  him  ! — and  the  Musalman  community  in  Samar- 
qand  were  overcome  with  despondency  and  consternation 
in  consequence.  A  petition  was  got  up,  and  was  attested 
with  the  testimony  of  the  chief  men  and  credible  persons 
of  the  Musalman  religion  dwelling  at  Samarqand,  and  we 
proceeded  with  that  petition  to  the  camp  of  Baraka  Khan, 
and  presented  to  him  an  account  of  the  proceedings  and 
disposition  of  the  Christians  of  that  city.  Zeal  for  the 
Muslim  religion  was  manifested  in  the  mind  of  that  monarch 
of  exemplary  faith,  and  the  defence  of  the  truth  became 
predominant  in  his  disposition.  After  some  days,  he  showed 
honour  to  this  Sayyid,  appointed  a  body  of  Turks  and 
confidential  persons  among  the  chief  Musalmans,  and 
commanded  that  they  should  slaughter  the  Christian  com- 
pany who  had  committed  that  dire  oppression,  and  despatch 
them  to  hell.  When  that  mandate  had  been  obtained,  it 
was  preserved  until  that  wretched  sect  had  assembled  in 
the  church,  then  they  seized  them  all  together,  and  de- 
spatched the  whole  of  them  to  hell,  and  reduced  the  church 
again  to  bricks."  x 

1  Juzjani,  pp.  448-50.     Raverty,  pp.  1288-90. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    225 

For  Islam  to  enter  into  competition  with  such  powerful 
rivals  as  Buddhism  and  Christianity  were  at  the  outset 
of  the  period  of  Mongol  rule,  must  have  appeared  a  well- 
nigh  hopeless  undertaking.  For  the  Muslims  had  suffered 
more  from  the  storm  of  the  Mongol  invasions  than  the 
others.  Those  cities  that  had  hitherto  been  the  rallying 
points  of  spiritual  organisation  and  learning  for  Islam  in 
Asia,  had  been  for  the  most  part  laid  in  ashes  :  the  theologians 
and  pious  doctors  of  the  faith,  either  slain  or  carried  away 
into  captivity.1  Among  the  Mongol  rulers — usually  so 
tolerant  towards  all  religions — there  were  some  who  ex- 
hibited varying  degrees  of  hatred  towards  the  Muslim  faith. 
Chingiz  Khan  ordered  all  those  who  killed  animals  in  the 
Muhammadan  fashion  to  be  put  to  death,  and  this  ordinance 
was  revived  by  Qiibilay,  who  by  offering  rewards  to  informers 
set  on  foot  a  sharp  persecution  that  lasted  for  seven  years, 
as  many  poor  persons  took  advantage  of  this  ready  means 
of  gaining  wealth,  and  slaves  accused  their  masters  in  order 
to  gain  their  freedom.2  During  the  reign  of  Kuyiik  (1246- 
1248),  who  left  the  conduct  of  affairs  entirely  to  his  two 
Christian  ministers  and  whose  court  was  filled  with  Christian 
monks,  the  Muhammadans  were  made  to  suffer  great 
severities.3 

A  contemporary  historian,  al-Juzjani,  gives  the  following 
account  of  the  kind  of  treatment  to  which  a  Muhammadan 
theologian  might  be  exposed  at  the  court  of  Kuyiik. 
"  Trustworthy  persons  have  related  that  Kuyuk  was 
constantly  being  incited  by  the  Buddhist  priests  to  acts 
of  oppression  towards  the  Musalmans  and  the  persecution 
of  the  faithful.  There  was  an  Imam  in  that  country,  one 
of  the  men  of  learning  among  the  Muslims  .  .  .  named 
Niir-al-Din,  al-Khwarazmi.  A  number  of  Christian  laymen 
and  priests  and  a  band  of  idol-worshipping  Buddhist  priests 
made  a  request  to  Kuyiik,  asking  him  to  summon  that 

1  So  notoriously  brutal  was  the  treatment  they  received  that  even  the 
Chinese  showmen  in  their  exhibitions  of  shadow  figures  exultingly  brought 
forward  the  figure  of  an  old  man  with  a  white  beard  dragged  by  the  neck 
at  the  tail  of  a  horse,  as  showing  how  the  Mongol  horsemen  behaved  towards 
the  Musalmans.     (Howorth,  vol.  i.  p.  159.) 

2  Raverty,  p.  1146.  Howorth,  vol.  i.  pp.  112,  273.  This  edict  was  only 
withdrawn  when  it  was  found  that  it  prevented  Muhammadan  merchants 
from  visiting  the  court  and  that  trade  suffered  in  consequence. 

3  Howorth,  vol.  i.  p.  165. 

Q 


226  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

Imam  of  the  Musalmans  that  they  might  hold  a  controversy 
with  him  and  get  him  to  prove  the  superiority  of  the  faith 
of  Muhammad  and  his  prophetic  mission — otherwise,  he 
should  be  put  to  death.  The  Khan  agreed,  the  Imam 
was  sent  for,  and  a  discussion  ensued  upon  the  claim  of 
Muhammad  to  be  a  prophet  and  the  manner  of  his  life  as 
compared  with  that  of  other  prophets.  At  length,  as  the 
arguments  of  those  accursed  ones  were  weak  and  devoid 
of  the  force  of  truth,  they  withdrew  their  hand  from  con- 
tradiction and  drew  the  mark  of  oppression  and  outrage 
on  the  pages  of  the  business  and  asked  Kuyuk  Khan  to 
tell  the  Imam  to  perform  two  genuflexions  in  prayer, 
according  to  the  rites  and  ordinances  of  the  Muhammadan 
law,  in  order  that  his  unbecoming  movements  in  the  perform- 
ance of  this  act  of  worship  might  become  manifest  to  them 
and  to  the  Khan."  Kuyuk  gave  the  order  accordingly, 
and  the  Imam  and  another  Musalman  who  was  with  him 
performed  the  ritual  of  the  prayer  according  to  the  pre- 
scribed forms.  "  When  the  godly  Imam  and  the  other 
Musalman  who  was  with  him,  had  placed  their  foreheads 
on  the  ground  in  the  act  of  prostration,  some  infidels  whom 
Kuyiik  had  summoned,  greatly  annoyed  them  and  knocked 
their  heads  with  force  upon  the  ground,  and  committed 
other  abominable  acts  against  them.  But  that  godly 
Imam  endured  all  this  oppression  and  annoyance  and 
performed  all  the  required  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the 
prayer  and  in  no  way  curtailed  it.  When  he  had  repeated 
the  salutation,  he  lifted  up  his  face  towards  heaven  and 
observed  the  form  of  '  Invoke  your  Lord  with  humility 
and  in  secret,'  and  having  asked  permission  to  depart,  he 
returned  unto  his  own  house."  1 

Arghun  (1284-1291)  the  fourth  Ilkhan  persecuted  the 
Musalmans  and  took  away  from  them  all  posts  in  the 
departments  of  justice  and  finance,  and  forbade  them  to 
appear  at  his  court.2 

In  spite  of  all  difficulties,  however,  the  Mongols  and  the 
savage  tribes  that  followed  in  their  wake3  were  at  length 

1  Juzjani,  pp.  404-5.     Raverty,  p.  1160  sqq. 

2  De  Guignes,  vol.  iii.  p.  265. 

3  In  the  thirteenth  century,  three-fourths  of  the  Mongol  hosts  were 
Turks.      (Cahun,  p.  279.) 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    227 

brought  to  submit  to  the  faith  of  those  Muslim  peoples 
whom  they  had  crushed  beneath  their  feet.  Unfortunately 
history  sheds  little  light  on  the  progress  of  this  missionary 
movement  and  only  a  few  details  relating  to  the  conversion 
of  the  more  prominent  converts  have  been  preserved  to  us. 
Scattered  up  and  down  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  Mongol  empire,  there  must  have  been  many  of  the 
followers  of  the  Prophet  who  laboured  successfully  and 
unknown,  to  win  unbelievers  to  the  faith.  In  the  reign 
of  Ogotay  (1229-1241),  we  read  of  a  certain  Buddhist 
governor  of  Persia,  named  Kurguz,  who  in  his  later  years 
abjured  Buddhism  and  became  a  Musalman.1  In  the 
reign  of  Timur  Khan  (1323-1328),  Ananda,  a  grandson  of 
Qubilay  and  viceroy  of  Kan-Su,  was  a  zealous  Musalman 
and  had  converted  a  great  many  persons  in  Tangut  and 
won  over  a  large  number  of  the  troops  under  his  command 
to  the  same  faith.  He  was  summoned  to  court  and  efforts 
were  made  to  induce  him  to  conform  to  Buddhism,  and  on 
his  refusing  to  abandon  his  faith  he  was  cast  into  prison. 
But  he  was  shortly  after  set  at  liberty,  for  fear  of  an  in- 
surrection among  the  inhabitants  of  Tangut,  who  were 
much  attached  to  him.2 

The  author  of  the  Muntakhab  al-Tawarikh  asserts  that 
Ananda  built  four  mosques  in  Khanbaligh  (the  modern 
Peking),  which  provided  accommodation  for  1,000,000 
men  at  the  time  of  the  Friday  prayer;  but  no  credence 
can  be  given  to  this  or  to  his  other  statements  regarding 
the  spread  of  Islam  in  China,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he 
represents  Ananda  to  have  been  the  successor  of  Timur 
Khan  on  the  imperial  throne  and  gives  an  entirely  fictitious 
account  of  his  descendants,  several  of  whom  are  represented 
as  having  professed  Islam,  though  none  of  the  five  had  any 
existence  except  in  the  imagination  of  the  writer.3 

The  first  Mongol  ruling  prince  who  professed  Islam  was 
Baraka  Khan,  who  was  chief  of  the  Golden  Horde  from 
1256  to  1267. 4     According  to  Abu'l-GhazI  he  was  converted 

1  C.  d'Ohsson,  vol.  iii.  p.  121. 

2  Rashid  al-DIn,  pp.  600-2.  3  Blochet,  pp.  74-7. 

4  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  Najm  al-DIn  Mukhtar  al-Zahidi  in  1260 
compiled  for  Baraka  Khan  a  treatise  which  gave  the  proofs  of  the  divine 
mission  of  the  Prophet,  a  refutation  of  those  who  denied  it,  and  an  account 


228  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

after  he  had  come  to  the  throne.  He  is  said  one  day  to 
have  fallen  in  with  a  caravan  coming  from  Bukhara,  and 
taking  two  of  the  merchants  aside,  to  have  questioned  them 
on  the  doctrines  of  Islam,  and  they  expounded  to  him  their 
faith  so  persuasively  that  he  became  converted  in  all  sin- 
cerity. He  first  revealed  his  change  of  faith  to  his  youngest 
brother,  whom  he  induced  to  follow  his  example,  and  then 
made  open  profession  of  his  new  belief.1  But,  according 
to  al- Juzjani,  Baraka  Khan  was  brought  up  as  a  Musalman 
from  infancy,  and,  as  soon  as  he  was  old  enough  to  learn, 
was  taught  the  Qur'an  by  one  of  the  'Ulama  of  the  city  of 
Khujand.2  The  same  author  (who  compiled  his  history 
during  the  lifetime  of  Baraka  Khan),  states  that  the  whole 
of  his  army  was  Musalman.  "  Trustworthy  persons  have 
also  related  that,  throughout  his  whole  army,  it  is  the 
etiquette  for  every  horseman  to  have  a  prayer-carpet  with 
him,  so  that,  when  the  time  for  prayer  arrives,  they  may 
occupy  themselves  in  their  devotions.  Not  a  person  in 
his  whole  army  takes  any  intoxicating  drink  whatever; 
and  great  'Ulama,  consisting  of  commentators,  traditionists, 
jurists,  and  disputants,  are  in  his  society.  He  has  a  great 
number  of  religious  books,  and  most  of  his  receptions  and 
debates  are  with  'Ulama.  In  his  place  of  audience  debates 
on  ecclesiastical  law  constantly  take  place ;  and,  in  his 
faith,  as  a  Musalman,  he  is  exceedingly  strict  and  orthodox/'3 
Baraka  Khan  entered  into  a  close  alliance  with  the  Mamliik 
Sultan  of  Egypt,  Rukn  al-DIn  Baybars.  The  initiative 
came  from  the  latter,  who  had  given  a  hospitable  reception 
to  a  body  of  troops,  two  hundred  in  number,  belonging  to 
the  Golden  Horde;  these  men,  observing  the  growing 
enmity  between  their  Khan  and  Hulagu,  the  conqueror  of 
Baghdad,  in  whose  army  they  were  serving,  took  flight  into 
Syria,  whence  they  were  honourably  conducted  to  Cairo 
to  the  court  of  Baybars,  who  persuaded  them  to  embrace 
Islam.4  Baybars  himself  was  at  war  with  Hulagu,  whom 
he  had  recently  defeated  and  driven  out  of  Syria.     He  sent 

of  the  controversies  between  Christians  and  Muslims.  (Steinschneider, 
pp.  63-4.)  *  Abu'l-GhazI,  tome  ii.  p.  181. 

2  Juzjani,  p.  447.     Raverty,  pp.  1283-4. 

3  Juzjani,  p.  447.     Raverty,  pp.  1285-6. 
*  Maqrizi  (2),  tome  i.  pp.  180-1,  187. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    229 

two  of  the  Mongol  fugitives,  with  some  other  envoys,  to 
bear  a  letter  to  Baraka  Khan.  On  their  return  these 
envoys  reported  that  each  princess  and  amir  at  the  court 
of  Baraka  Khan  had  an  imam  and  a  mu'adhdhin,  and  the 
children  were  taught  the  Qur'an  in  the  schools.1  These 
friendly  relations  between  Baybars  and  Baraka  Khan 
brought  many  of  the  Mongols  of  the  Golden  Horde 
into  Egypt,  where  they  were  prevailed  upon  to  become 
Musalmans.2 

In  Persia,  where  Hulagu.  founded  the  dynasty  of  the 
Ilkhans,  the  progress  of  Islam  among  the  Mongols  was 
much  slower.  In  order  to  strengthen  himself  against  the 
attacks  of  Baraka  Khan  and  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  Hulagii 
accepted  the  alliance  of  the  Christian  powers  of  the  East, 
such  as  the  king  of  Armenia  and  the  Crusaders.  His 
favourite  wife  was  a  Christian  and  favourably  disposed  the 
mind  of  her  husband  towards  her  co-religionists,  and  his 
son  Abaqa  Khan  married  the  daughter  of  the  Emperor  of 
Constantinople.  Though  Abaqa  Khan  did  not  himself 
become  a  Christian,  his  court  was  filled  with  Christian 
priests,  and  he  sent  envoys  to  several  of  the  princes  of 
Europe — St.  Louis  of  France,  King  Charles  of  Sicily  and 
King  James  of  Aragon — to  solicit  their  alliance  against  the 
Muhammadans;  to  the  same  end  also,  an  embassy  of 
sixteen  Mongols  was  sent  to  the  Council  of  Lyons  in  1274, 
where  the  spokesman  of  this  embassy  embraced  Christianity 
and  was  baptised  with  some  of  his  companions.  Great 
hopes  were  entertained  of  the  conversion  of  Abaqa,  but 
they  proved  fruitless.  His  brother  Takiidar,3  who  suc- 
ceeded him,  was  the  first  of  the  Ilkhans  who  embraced 
Islam.  He  had  been  brought  up  as  a  Christian,  for  (as  a 
contemporary  Christian  writer  4  tells  us),  "  he  was  baptised 
when  young  and  called  by  the  name  of  Nicholas.  But 
when  he  was  grown  up,  through  his  intercourse  with  Saracens 
of  whom  he  was  very  fond,  he  became  a  base  Saracen, 
and,  renouncing  the  Christian  faith,  wished  to  be  called 
Muhammad  Khan,  and  strove   with  all  his  might  that  the 

1  Maqrizi  (2),  tome  i.  p.  215.  2  Id.  p.  222. 

3  Wassaf  calls  him  Nikudar  before,  and  Ahmad  after,  his  conversion. 

4  Hay  ton.     (Ramusio,  tome  ii.  p.  60,  c.) 


230  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

Tartars  should  be  converted  to  the  faith  and  sect  of  Muham- 
mad, and  when  they  proved  obstinate,  not  daring  to  force 
them,  he  brought  about  their  conversion  by  giving  them 
honours  and  favours  and  gifts,  so  that  in  his  time  many 
Tartars  were  converted  to  the  faith  of  the  Saracens."  This 
prince  sent  the  news  of  his  conversion  to  the  Sultan  of 
Egypt  in  the  following  letter  : — "  By  the  power  of  God 
Almighty,  the  mandate  of  Ahmad  to  the  Sultan  of  Egypt. 
God  Almighty  (praised  be  His  name !)  by  His  grace  preventing 
us  and  by  the  light  of  His  guidance,  hath  guided  us  in  our 
early  youth  and  vigour  into  the  true  path  of  the  know- 
ledge of  His  deity  and  the  confession  of  His  unity,  to  bear 
witness  that  Muhammad  (on  whom  rest  the  highest  bless- 
ings !)  is  the  Prophet  of  God,  and  to  reverence  His  saints 
and  His  pious  servants.  '  Whom  God  shall  please  to  guide, 
that  man's  breast  will  He  open  to  Islam.'  x  We  ceased 
not  to  incline  our  heart  to  the  promotion  of  the  faith  and 
the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  Islam  and  the  Muslims, 
up  to  the  time  when  the  succession  to  the  empire  came  to 
us  from  our  illustrious  father  and  brother,  and  God  spread 
over  us  the  glory  of  His  grace  and  kindness,  so  that  in  the 
abundance  of  His  favours  our  hopes  were  realised,  and  He 
revealed  to  us  the  bride  of  the  kingdom,  and  she  was  brought 
forth  to  us  a  noble  spouse.  A  Quriltay  or  general  assembly 
was  convened,  wherein  our  brothers,  our  sons,  great  nobles, 
generals  of  the  army  and  captains  of  the  forces,  met  to 
hold  council ;  and  they  were  all  agreed  on  carrying  out  the 
order  of  our  elder  brother,  viz.  to  summon  here  a  vast 
levy  of  our  troops  whose  numbers  would  make  the  earth, 
despite  its  vastness,  appear  too  narrow,  whose  fury  and 
fierce  onset  would  fill  the  hearts  of  men  with  fear,  being 
animated  with  a  courage  before  which  the  mountain  peaks 
bow  down,  and  a  firm  purpose  that  makes  the  hardest 
rocks  grow  soft.  We  reflected  on  this  their  resolution 
which  expressed  the  wish  of  all,  and  we  concluded  that  it 
ran  counter  to  the  aim  we  had  in  view — to  promote  the 
common  weal,  i.e.  to  strengthen  the  ordinance  of  Islam; 
never,  as  far  as  lies  in  our  power,  to  issue  any  order  that  will 
not  tend  to  prevent  bloodshed,  remove  the  ills  of  men, 

1  Qur'an,  vi.  125. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE   MONGOLS    231 

and  cause  the  breeze  of  peace  and  prosperity  to  blow  on 
all  lands,  and  the  kings  of  other  countries  to  rest  upon 
the  couch  of  affection  and  benevolence,  whereby  the  com- 
mands of  God  will  be  honoured  and  mercy  be  shown  to 
the  people  of  God.  Herein,  God  inspired  us  to  quench 
this  fire  and  put  an  end  to  these  terrible  calamities,  and 
make  known  to  those  who  advanced  this  proposal  (of  a 
levy)  what  it  is  that  God  has  put  into  our  hearts  to  do, 
namely,  to  employ  all  possible  means  for  the  healing  of  all 
the  sickness  of  the  world,  and  putting  off  what  should  only 
be  appealed  to  as  the  last  remedy.  For  we  desire  not  to 
hasten  to  appeal  to  arms,  until  we  have  first  declared  the 
right  path,  and  will  permit  it  only  after  setting  forth  the 
truth  and  establishing  it  with  proofs.  Our  resolve  to  carry 
out  whatever  appears  to  us  good  and  advantageous  has 
been  strengthened  by  the  counsels  of  the  Shaykh  al-Islam, 
the  model  of  divines,  who  has  given  us  much  assistance  in 
religious  matters.  We  have  appointed  our  chief  justice, 
Qutb  al-Din  and  the  Atabak,  Baha  al-Din,  both  trustworthy 
persons  of  this  flourishing  kingdom,  to  make  known  to  you 
our  course  of  action  and  bear  witness  to  our  good  intentions 
for  the  common  weal  of  the  Muslims ;  and  to  make  it  known 
that  God  has  enlightened  us,  and  that  Islam  annuls  all 
that  has  gone  before  it,  and  that  God  Almighty  has  put 
it  into  our  hearts  to  follow  the  truth  and  those  who  practice 
it.  ...  If  some  convincing  proof  be  required,  let  men 
observe  our  actions.  By  the  grace  of  God,  we  have  raised 
aloft  the  standards  of  the  faith,  and  borne  witness  to  it  in 
all  our  orders  and  our  practice,  so  that  the  ordinances  of 
the  law  of  Muhammad  may  be  brought  to  the  fore  and 
firmly  established  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of 
justice  laid  down  by  Ahmad.  Whereby  we  have  filled  the 
hearts  of  the  people  with  joy,  have  granted  free  pardon 
to  all  offenders,  and  shown  them  indulgences,  saying,  '  May 
God  pardon  the  past  !  '  We  have  reformed  all  matters 
concerning  the  pious  endowments  of  Muslims  given  for 
mosques,  colleges,  charitable  institutions,  and  the  rebuilding 
of  caravanserais;  we  have  restored  their  incomes  to  those 
to  whom  they  were  due  according  to  the  terms  laid  down 
by  the  donors.  .  .  .  We  have  ordered  the  pilgrims  to  be 


232  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

treated  with  respect,  provision  to  be  made  for  their  caravans 
and  for  securing  their  safety  on  the  pilgrim  routes ;  we  have 
given  perfect  freedom  to  merchants,  travelling  from  one 
country  to  another,  that  they  may  go  wherever  they  please  ; 
and  we  have  strictly  prohibited  our  soldiers  and  police 
from  interfering  with  them  in  their  comings  or  goings/' 
He  seeks  the  alliance  of  the  Sultan  of  Egypt  "  so  that  these 
countries  and  cities  may  again  be  populated,  these  terrible 
calamities  be  put  down,  the  sword  be  returned  to  the 
scabbard ;  that  all  peoples  may  dwell  in  peace  and  quietness, 
and  the  necks  of  the  Muslims  be  freed  from  the  ills  of 
humiliation  and  disgrace."  1 

To  the  student  of  the  history  of  the  Mongols  it  is  a  relief 
to  pass  from  the  recital  of  nameless  horrors  and  continual 
bloodshed  to  a  document  emanating  from  a  Mongol  prince 
and  giving  expression  to  such  humane  and  benevolent 
sentiments,  which  sound  strange  indeed  coming  from  such 
lips. 

This  conversion  of  their  chief  and  the  persecutions  that 
he  inflicted  on  the  Christians  gave  great  offence  to  the 
Mongols,  who,  although  not  Christians  themselves,  had  been 
long  accustomed  to  intercourse  with  the  Christians,  and 
they  denounced  their  chief  to  Qubilay  Khan  as  one  who 
had  abandoned  the  footsteps  of  his  forefathers.  A  revolt 
broke  out  against  him,  headed  by  his  nephew  Arghiin,  who 
compassed  his  death  and  succeeded  him  on  the  throne. 
During  his  brief  reign  (1284-1291),  the  Christians  were 
once  more  restored  to  favour,  while  the  Musalmans  had  to 
suffer  persecution  in  their  turn,  were  dismissed  from  their 
posts  and  driven  away  from  the  court.2 

The  successors  of  Takudar  were  all  heathen,  until,  in 
1295,  Ghazan,  the  seventh  and  greatest  of  the  Ilkhans, 
became  a  Musalman  and  made  Islam  the  ruling  religion 
of  Persia.  During  the  last  three  reigns  the  Christians  had 
entertained  great  hopes  of  the  conversion  of  the  ruling  family 
of  Persia,  who  had  shown  them  such  distinguished  favour 
and  entrusted  them  with  so  many  important  offices  of 
state.  His  immediate  predecessor,  the  insurgent  Baydu 
Khan,  who  occupied  the  throne  for  a  few  months  only  in 

1  Was§af,  pp.  231-4.  2  De  Guignes,  vol.  iii.  pp.  263-5. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    233 

1295,  carried  his  predilection  for  Christianity  so  far  as  to 
try  to  put  a  stop  to  the  spread  of  Islam  among  the  Mongols, 
and  accordingly  forbade  any  one  to  preach  the  doctrines 
of  this  faith  among  them.1 

Ghazan  himself  before  his  conversion  had  been  brought 
up  as  a  Buddhist  and  had  erected  several  Buddhist  temples 
in  Khurasan,  and  took  great  pleasure  in  the  company  of 
the  priests  of  this  faith,  who  had  come  into  Persia  in  large 
numbers  since  the  establishment  of  the  Mongol  supremacy 
over  that  country.2  He  appears  to  have  been  naturally 
of  a  religious  turn  of  mind,  for  he  studied  the  creeds  of  the 
different  religions  of  his  time,  and  used  to  hold  discussions 
with  the  learned  doctors  of  each  faith.3  Rashid  al-Din, 
his  learned  minister  and  the  historian  of  his  reign,  maintained 
the  genuineness  of  his  conversion  to  Islam,  the  religious 
observances  of  which  he  zealously  kept  throughout  his 
whole  reign,  though  his  contemporaries  (and  later  writers 
have  often  re-echoed  the  imputation)  represented  him  as 
having  only  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  some  Amirs  and 
Shaykhs.4  "  Besides,  what  interested  motive,"  asks  his 
apologist,  "  could  have  led  so  powerful  a  sovereign  to  change 
his  faith  :  much  less,  a  prince  whose  pagan  ancestors  had 
conquered  the  world  ?  "  His  conversion,  however,  certainly 
won  over  to  his  side  the  hearts  of  the  Persians,  when  he 
was  contending  with  Baydii  for  the  throne,  and  the  Muham- 
madan  Mongols  in  the  army  of  his  rival  deserted  to  support 
the  cause  of  their  co-religionist.  These  were  the  very 
considerations  that  were  urged  upon  Ghazan  by  Nawruz,  a 
Muhammadan  Amir  who  had  espoused  his  cause  and  who 
hailed  him  as  the  prince  who,  according  to  a  prophecy, 
was  to  appear  about  this  time  to  protect  the  faith  of  Islam 
and  restore  it  to  its  former  splendour  :  if  he  embraced  Islam, 
he  could  become  the  ruler  of  Persia :  the  Musalmans, 
delivered  from  the  grievous  yoke  of  the  Pagan  Mongols, 
would  espouse  his  cause,  and  God,  recognising  in  him  the 
saviour  of  the  true  faith  from  utter  destruction,  would  bless 
his  arms   with  victory.5    After  hesitating  a  little,  Ghazan 

1  C.  d'Ohsson,  tome  iv.  pp.  141-2.  a  Id.  ib.  p.  148. 

3  Id.  ib.  p.  365.  4  Id.  ib.  pp.  148,  354.     Cahun,  p.  434. 

5  C.  d'Ohsson,  tom3  iv.  pp.  128,  132. 


234  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

made  a  public  profession  of  the  faith,  and  his  officers  and 
soldiers  followed  his  example  :  he  distributed  alms  to  men 
of  piety  and  learning  and  visited  the  mosques  and  tombs 
of  the  saints  and  in  every  way  showed  himself  an  exemplary 
Muslim  ruler.  His  brother,  Uljaytu,  who  succeeded  him 
in  1304,  under  the  name  of  Muhammad  Khudabandah, 
had  been  brought  up  as  a  Christian  in  the  faith  of  his  mother 
and  had  been  baptised  under  the  name  of  Nicholas,  but 
after  his  mother's  death,  while  he  was  still  a  young  man, 
he  became  a  convert  to  Islam  through  the  persuasions  of 
his  wife.1  Ibn  Batiitah  says  that  his  example  exercised 
a  great  influence  on  the  Mongols.2  From  this  time  forward 
Islam  became  the  paramount  faith  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
Ilkhans. 

The  details  that  we  possess  of  the  progress  of  Islam  in 
the  Middle  Kingdom,  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  Chaghatay  and 
his  descendants,  are  still  more  meagre.  Several  of  the 
princes  of  this  line  had  a  Muhammadan  minister  in  their 
service,  but  they  showed  themselves  unsympathetic  to  the 
faith  of  Islam.  Chaghatay  harassed  his  Muhammadan 
subjects  by  regulations  that  restricted  their  ritual  observ- 
ances in  respect  of  the  killing  of  animals  for  food  and  of 
ceremonial  washings.  Al-Juzjani  says  that  he  was  the 
bitterest  enemy  of  the  Muslims  among  all  the  Mongol 
rulers  and  did  not  wish  any  one  to  utter  the  word  Musalman 
before  him  except  with  evil  purpose.3  Orghana.  the  wife 
of  his  grandson  and  successor,  Qara-Hulagii,  brought  up 

1  Hammer-Purgstall :  Geschichte  der  Ilchanen,  vol.  ii.  p.  182.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  the  captive  Muslim  women  took  a  considerable  part 
in  the  conversion  of  the  Mongols  to  Islam.  Women  appear  to  have  occu- 
pied an  honoured  position  among  the  Mongols,  and  many  instances  might 
be  given  of  their  having  taken  a  prominent  part  in  political  affairs,  just 
as  already  several  cases  have  been  mentioned  of  the  influence  they  exercised 
on  their  husbands  in  religious  matters.  William  of  Rubruck  tells  us 
how  he  found  the  influence  of  a  Muslim  wife  an  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  his  proselytising  labours  :  "  On  the  day  of  Pentecost  a  certain  Saracen 
came  to  us,  and  while  in  conversation  with  us,  we  began  expounding  the 
faith,  and  when  he  heard  of  the  blessings  of  God  to  man  in  the  incar- 
nation, the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  last  judgment,  and  the  washing 
away  of  sins  in  baptism,  he  said  he  wished  to  be  baptised ;  but  while  we 
were  making  ready  to  baptise  him,  he  suddenly  jumped  on  his  horse 
saying  he  had  to  go  home  to  consult  with  his  wife.  And  the  next  day 
talking  with  us  he  said  he  could  not  possibly  venture  to  receive  baptism, 
for  then  he  could  not  drink  cosmos  "  (mare's  milk).    (Rubruck,  pp.  90-1.) 

2  Ibn  Batutah,  vol.  ii.  p.  57. 

3  Juzjani,  pp.  381,  397.     Raverty,  pp.  11 10,  1 145-6. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE   MONGOLS    235 

her  son  as  a  Musalman,  and  under  the  name  of  Mubarak 
Shah  he  came  forward  in  1264  as  one  of  the  claimants  of 
the  disputed  succession  to  the  Chaghatay  Khanate ;    but  he 
was  soon  driven  from  the  throne  by  his  cousin  Buraq  Khan, 
and  appears  to  have  exercised  no  influence  on  behalf  of 
his  faith,  indeed  judging  from  their  names  it  would  not 
appear    that  any  of    his  own  children  even  adopted  the 
religion  of  their  father.1     Buraq  Khan  is  said  to  have  "  had 
the  blessedness  of  receiving  the  light  of  the  faith  '    a  few 
days  before  his  death  in  1270,  and  to  have  taken  the  name 
of  Sultan    Ghiyath  al-Din,2  but    he    was  buried  according 
to  the  ancient  funeral  rites  of  the  Mongols,  and  not  as  a 
Musalman,  and  those  who  had  been  converted  during  his 
reign  relapsed  into  their  former  heathenism.     It  was  not 
until  the  next  century  that  the  conversion  of  Tarmashirin 
Khan,   about   1326,  caused  Islam    to  be  at  all    generally 
adopted  by  the  Chaghatay  Mongols,  who  when  they  followed 
the  example  of  their  chief  this  time  remained  true  to  their 
new  faith.     But  even  now  the  ascendancy  of  Islam  was  not 
assured,  for  Biizun   who  was  Khan  in  the   next  decade — 
the  chronology  is  uncertain — drove  Tarmashirin  from  his 
throne,  and  persecuted  the  Muslims,3  and  it  was  not  until 
some  years  later  that  we  hear  of  the  first  Musalman  king 
of  Kashgar,  which  the  break-up  of  the  Chaghatay  dynasty 
had  erected  into  a  separate  kingdom.     This  prince,  Tiiqluq 
Timur  Khan  (1347-1363),  is  said  to  have  owed  his  conversion 
to   a  holy  man  from  Bukhara,   by  name  Shaykh  Jamal 
al-DIn.     This  Shaykh,  in  company  with  a  number  of  travel- 
lers, had  unwittingly  trespassed  on  the  game-preserves  of 
the  prince,  who  ordered  them  to  be  bound  hand  and  foot 
and  brought  before  him.     In  reply  to  his  angry  question, 
how  they  had  dared  interfere  with  his  hunting,  the  Shaykh 
pleaded  that  they  were  strangers  and  were  quite  unaware 
that  they  were  trespassing  on  forbidden  ground.     Learning 
that  they  were  Persians,  the  prince  said  that  a  dog  was 
worth  more  than  a  Persian.     "  Yes,"  replied  the  Shaykh, 
"  if  we  had  not  the  true  faith,  we  should  indeed  be  worse 
than  the  dogs."     Struck  with  his  reply,  the  Khan  ordered 

1  Rashid  al-DIn,  pp.  173-4,  l88-  *  Abu'l-Ghazi,  tome  ii.  p.  159. 

3  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iii.  p.  47. 


236  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

this  bold  Persian  to  be  brought  before  him  on  his  return 
from  hunting,  and  taking  him  aside  asked  him  to  explain 
what  he  meant  by  these  words  and  what  was  "  faith."  The 
Shaykh  then  set  before  him  the  doctrines  of  Islam  with 
such  fervour  and  zeal  that  the  heart  of  the  Khan  that 
before  had  been  hard  as  a  stone  was  melted  like  wax,  and 
so  terrible  a  picture  did  the  holy  man  draw  of  the  state  of 
unbelief,  that  the  prince  was  convinced  of  the  blindness  of 
his  own  errors,  but  said,  "  Were  I  now  to  make  profession 
of  the  faith  of  Islam,  I  should  not  be  able  to  lead  my  subjects 
into  the  true  path.  But  bear  with  me  a  little;  and  when 
I  have  entered  into  the  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  my 
forefathers,  come  to  me  again."  For  the  empire  of  Chagha- 
tay  had  by  this  time  been  broken  up  into  a  number  of  petty 
princedoms,  and  it  was  many  years  before  Tuqluq  Timur 
succeeded  in  uniting  under  his  sway  the  whole  empire  as 
before.  Meanwhile  Shaykh  Jamal  al-Din  had  returned  to 
his  home,  where  he  fell  dangerously  ill  :  when  at  the  point 
of  death,  he  said  to  his  son  Rashid  al-Din,  "  Tuqluq  Timur 
will  one  day  become  a  great  monarch;  fail  not  to  go  and 
salute  him  in  my  name  and  fearlessly  remind  him  of  the 
promise  he  made  me."  Some  years  later,  when  Tuqluq 
Timur  had  re-won  the  empire  of  his  fathers,  Rashid  al-Din 
made  his  way  to  the  camp  of  the  Khan  to  fulfil  the  last 
wishes  of  his  father,  but  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  he  could 
not  gain  an  audience  of  the  Khan.  At  length  he  devised 
the  following  expedient  :  one  day  in  the  early  morning,  he 
began  to  chant  the  call  to  prayers,  close  to  the  Khan's 
tent.  Enraged  at  having  his  slumbers  disturbed  in  this 
way,  the  prince  ordered  him  to  be  brought  into  his  presence, 
whereupon  Rashid  al-Din  delivered  his  father's  message. 
Tuqluq  Khan  was  not  unmindful  of  his  promise,  and  said  : 
"  Ever  since  I  ascended  the  throne  I  have  had  it  on  my  mind 
that  I  made  that  promise,  but  the  person  to  whom  I  gave 
the  pledge  never  came.  Now  you  are  welcome."  He  then 
repeated  the  profession  of  faith  and  became  a  Muslim. 
"  On  that  morn  the  sun  of  bounty  rose  out  of  the  east  of 
divine  favour  and  effaced  the  dark  night  of  unbelief.  .  .  . 
They  then  decided  that  for  the  propagation  of  Islam  they 
should  interview  the  princes  one  by  one,  and  it  should  be 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM  AMONG  THE   MONGOLS    237 

well  for  those  who  accepted  the  faith,  but  those  who  refused 
should  be  slain  as  heathens  and  idolaters."  The  first  to 
be  examined  was  a  noble  named  Amir  Tulik.  The  Khan 
asked  him,  "  Will  you  embrace  Islam  ?  "  Amir  Tulik 
burst  into  tears  and  said  :  "  Three  years  ago  I  was  converted 
by  some  holy  men  at  Kashgar  and  became  a  Musalman, 
but  from  fear  of  you  I  did  not  openly  declare  it."  Then 
Tuqluq  Khan  rose  up  and  embraced  him,  and  the  three 
sat  down  again  together.  In  this  manner  they  examined 
the  princes  one  by  one,  and  they  all  accepted  Islam,  with 
the  exception  of  one  named  Jaras,  who  suggested  a  trial 
of  strength  between  the  Shaykh  and  his  servant,  an  infidel 
who  was  above  the  ordinary  stature  of  man  and  so  strong 
that  he  could  lift  a  two-year-old  camel.  The  Shaykh 
accepted  the  challenge,  saying  :  "  If  I  do  not  throw  him, 
I  will  not  require  you  to  become  a  Musalman.  If  it  is 
God's  wish  that  the  Mongols  become  honoured  with  the 
blessed  state  of  Islam,  He  will  doubtless  give  me  sufficient 
power  to  overcome  this  man."  Tuqluq  Khan  and  those 
who  had  become  Musalmans  with  him  tried  to  dissuade 
the  holy  man,  but  he  persisted  in  his  purpose.  "  A  large 
crowd  assembled,  the  infidel  was  brought  in,  and  he  and  the 
Shaykh  advanced  towards  one  another.  The  infidel,  proud 
of  his  own  strength,  advanced  with  a  conceited  air.  The 
Shaykh  looked  very  small  and  weak  beside  him.  When 
they  came  to  blows,  the  Shaykh  struck  the  infidel  full  in  the 
chest,  and  he  fell  senseless.  After  a  little  he  came  to  again, 
and  having  raised  himself,  fell  again  at  the  feet  of  the 
Shaykh,  crying  out  and  uttering  words  of  belief.  The  people 
raised  loud  shouts  of  applause,  and  on  that  day  160,000 
persons  cut  off  the  hair  of  their  heads  and  became  Musal- 
mans. The  Khan  was  circumcised,  and  the  lights  of  Islam 
dispelled  the  shades  of  unbelief."  From  that  time  Islam 
became  the  established  faith  in  the  settled  countries  under 
the  rule  of  the  descendants  of  Chaghatay.1  But  many 
of  the  nomad  Mongols  appear  to  have  remained  outside 
the  pale  of  Islam  up  to  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  judging  from  the  violent  methods  adopted  for 
their  conversion  by  Muhammad  Khan,   who  was  Khan  of 

1  Abu'  1-GhazI,  tome  ii.  pp.  166-8.     Muhammad  Haydar,  pp.  13-15. 


238  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

Mughalistan  *  about  1416.  "  Muhammad  Khan  was  a  wealthy 
prince  and  a  good  Musalman.  He  persisted  in  following  the 
road  of  justice  and  equity,  and  was  so  unremitting  in  his 
exertions,  that  during  his  blessed  reign  most  of  the  tribes  of 
the  Mongols  became  Musalmans.  It  is  well  known  what 
severe  measures  he  had  recourse  to,  in  bringing  the  Mongols 
to  be  believers  in  Islam.  If,  for  instance,  a  Mongol  did  not 
wear  a  turban,  a  horseshoe  nail  was  driven  into  his  head : 
and  treatment  of  this  kind  was  common.  May  God 
recompense  him  with  good."  2 

Even  such  drastic  measures  were  ineffectual  in  bringing 
about  a  general  acceptance  of  Islam,  for  as  late  as  at  the 
close  of  the  following  century,3  a  dervish  named  Ishaq  Wall 
found  scope  for  his  proselytising  activities  in  Kashgar, 
Yarkand  and  Khotan,  where  he  spent  twelve  years  in 
spreading  the  faith ;  4  he  also  worked  among  the  Kirghiz 
and  Kazaks,  from  among  whom  he  made  180  converts 
and  destroyed  eighteen  temples  of  idols.5 

In  the  preceding  pages  some  attempt  has  been  made  to 
indicate  some  of  the  steps  by  which  the  Muslims  won  over 
to  their  faith  the  savage  hordes  who  had  destroyed  their 
centres  of  culture.  By  slow  degrees,  Islam  thus  began  to 
emerge  out  of  the  ruins  of  its  former  ascendancy  and  take 
its  place  again  as  a  dominant  faith,  after  more  than  a 
century  of  depression.  In  the  course  of  the  struggle  between 
the  followers  of  rival  creeds  for  the  adherence  of  the  Mongols, 
considerations  of  political  expediency  undoubtedly  operated 
in  favour  of  the  Muslim  party,  and  the  intrigues  of  Western 
Christendom  caused  the  Christians  to  become  suspect,  as 
agents  of  a  foreign  power;  but  at  the  beginning  such  of 
the  Mongols  as  were  Nestorians  could  put  forward  a  better 
claim  to  be  the  national  party  and  could  attack  the  Musal- 
mans as   adherents   of  a  foreign  faith.     Ahmad  Takudar 

1  When  the  power  of  the  Chaghatay  Khans  declined,  a  portion  of  the 
eastern  division  of  their  realm  became  practically  independent  under  the 
name  of  Mughalistan,  a  pastoral  country  suited  to  the  habits  of  nomad 
herdsmen,  in  what  is  now  known  as  Chinese  Turkistan. 

*  Muhammad  Haydar,  pp.  57-8. 

3  In  the  reign  of  'Abd  al-Karim,  who  was  Khan  of  Kashgar  from  a.h. 
983  to  1003  (a.d.  1575-1594). 

*  Martin  Hartmann  :   Der  Islamische  Orient,  vol.  i.  p.  203.     (Berlin,  1899.) 
6  Id.  p.  202. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    239 

was  denounced  by  Arghun  as  a  traitor  to  the  law  of  his 
fathers,  in  that  he  had  followed  the  way  of  the  Arabs  which 
none  of  his  ancestors  had  known.1     The  insurrection  that 
caused  Tarmashirin  to  be  driven  into  exile,  gained  strength 
from   the   complaint   that   this   monarch   had  disregarded 
the  Yassaq   or  ancient   code   of   Mongol  institutes.2     But 
though  the  issue  of  the  struggle  long  remained  doubtful, 
Islam  gradually  gained  ground  in  the  lands  of  which  it 
had  been  dispossessed.     The  means  whereby  this  success 
was  achieved  are  obscure,  and  the  scanty  details  set  forth 
above  leave  much  of  the  tale  untold,  but  enough  has  been 
recorded  to  indicate  some  of  the  proselytising  agencies  that 
led  to  individual  conversions.     Ananda  drank  in  Islam  with 
his  foster-mother's  milk ; 3  and  the  remnant  of  the  faithful, 
especially  the  older  families  of  Muhammadan  Turks,  exer- 
cised an  almost  insensible  influence  on  the  Mongols  who 
settled  down  in  their  midst.     But  of  special  importance 
among  the  proselytising  agencies  at  work  was  the  influence 
of  the  pir  and  his  spiritual  disciples.     In  the  midst  of  the 
profound  discouragement  which  filled  the  Musalmans  after 
the  flood  of  the  Mongol  conquest  had  poured  over  them, 
their  first  refuge  was  in  mysticism,  and  the  pir,  or  spiritual 
guide,    and    religious    orders — such    as    the    Naqshbandi, 
which  in  the  fourteenth  century  entered  on  a  new  period 
of  its   development — breathed  new  life  into  the   Muslim 
community  and  inspired  it  with  fresh  fervour.     "  In  the 
hands  of  the  pir  and  his  monks,  the  Musalman  in  Asia 
came  to  be  an  agent,  at  first  passive  and  unconscious,  later 
on  the  adherent  of  a  party — the  party  of  the  national 
faith,  in  opposition  to  the  rule  of  the  Mongols,  which  was 
at  once  foreign,  barbaric  and  secular."  4 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  history  of  Islam  in  the  Golden 
Horde.  The  chief  camping  ground  of  this  section  of  the 
Mongols  was  the  grassy  plain  watered  by  the  Volga,  on  the 
bank  of  which  they  founded  their  capital  city  Serai,  whither 
the  Russian  princes  sent  their  tribute  to  the  khan.  The 
conversion  of  Baraka  Elan,  of  which  mention  has  been 
made  above,  and  the  close  intercourse  with  Egypt  that 

1  Assemani,  tome  iii.  pars.  ii.  p.  cxvi.  2  Ibn  Batutah,  vol.  iii.  p.  40. 

8  Rashid  al-Din,  p.  600,  1.  1.  4  Cahun,  p.  410. 


240  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

subsequently  sprang  up,  contributed  considerably  to  the 
progress  of  Islam,  and  his  example  seems  to  have  been 
gradually  followed  by  those  of  the  aristocracy  and  leaders 
of  the  Golden  Horde  that  were  of  Mongol  descent.  But 
many  tribes  of  the  Golden  Horde  appear  to  have  resented 
the  introduction  of  Islam  into  their  midst,  and  when  the 
conversion  of  Baraka  Khan  was  openly  proclaimed,  they 
sent  to  offer  the  crown,  of  which  they  considered  him  now 
unworthy,  to  his  rival  Hiilagu.  Indeed,  so  strong  was  this 
opposition,  that  it  seems  to  have  largely  contributed  to 
the  formation  of  the  Nogais  as  a  separate  tribe.  They  took 
their  name  from  Nogay,  who  was  the  chief  commander 
of  the  Mongol  forces  under  Baraka  Khan.  When  the 
other  princes  of  the  Golden  Horde  became  Musalmans, 
Nogay  remained  a  Shamanist  and  thus  became  a  rallying 
point  for  those  who  refused  to  abandon  the  old  religion  of 
the  Mongols.  His  daughter,  however,  who  was  married 
to  a  Shamanist,  became  converted  to  Islam  some  time  after 
her  marriage  and  had  to  endure  the  ill-treatment  and 
contempt  of  her  husband  in  consequence.1 

To  Uzbek  Khan,  who  was  leader  of  the  Golden  Horde 
from  1 3 13  to  1340,  and  who  distinguished  himself  by  his 
proselytising  zeal,  it  was  said,  "  Content  yourself  with  our 
obedience,  what  matters  our  religion  to  you  ?  Why  should 
we  abandon  the  faith  of  Chingiz  Khan  for  that  of  the  Arabs  ? ' 
But  in  spite  of  the  strong  opposition  to  his  efforts,  Uzbek 
Khan  succeeded  in  winning  many  converts  to  the  faith 
of  which  he  was  so  ardent  a  follower  and  which  owed  to 
his  efforts  its  firm  establishment  in  the  country  under  his 
sway.2  A  further  sign  of  his  influence  is  found  in  the 
tribes  of  the  Uzbeks  of  Central  Asia,  who  take  their  name 
from  him  and  were  probably  converted  during  his  reign. 
He  is  said  to  have  formed  the  design  of  spreading  the  faith 
of  Islam  throughout  the  whole  of  Russia,3  but  here 
he  met  with  no  success.  Indeed,  though  the  Mongols 
were  paramount  in  Russia  for  two  centuries,  they 
appear  to  have  exercised  very  little  influence  on  the 
people  of  that  country,  and  least  of  all  in  the  matter  of 

1  Howorth,  vol  ii.  p.  1015.  2  Abu-1  Ghazi,  tome  ii.  p.  1S4. 

3  De  Guignes,  vol.  iii.  p.  351. 


SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    241 

religion.  It  is  noticeable,  moreover,  that  in  spite  of  his 
zeal  for  the  spread  of  his  own  faith,  Uzbek  Khan  was  very- 
tolerant  towards  his  Christian  subjects,  who  were  left 
undisturbed  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion  and  even  allowed 
to  pursue  their  missionary  labours  in  his  territory.  One  of 
the  most  remarkable  documents  of  Muhammadan  toleration 
is  the  charter  that  Uzbek  Khan  granted  to  the  Metropolitan 
Peter  in  1313  : — "  By  the  will  and  power,  the  greatness 
and  mercy  of  the  most  High  !  Uzbek  to  all  our  princes, 
great  and  small,  etc.,  etc.  Let  no  man  insult  the  metro- 
politan church  of  which  Peter  is  the  head,  or  his  servants 
or  his  churchmen;  let  no  man  seize  their  property,  goods 
or  people,  let  no  man  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  the  metro- 
politan church,  since  they  are  divine.  Whoever  shall 
meddle  therein  and  transgress  our  edict,  will  be  guilty 
before  God  and  feel  His  wrath  and  be  punished  by  us  with 
death.  Let  the  metropolitan  dwell  in  the  path  of  safety 
and  rejoice,  with  a  just  and  upright  heart  let  him  (or  his 
deputy)  decide  and  regulate  all  ecclesiastical  matters.  We 
solemnly  declare  that  neither  we  nor  our  children  nor  the 
princes  of  our  realm  nor  the  governors  of  our  provinces 
will  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  the  church  and 
the  metropolitan,  or  in  their  towns,  districts,  villages, 
chases  and  fisheries,  their  hives,  lands,  meadows,  forests, 
towns  and  places  under  their  bailiffs,  their  vineyards,  mills, 
winter  quarters  for  cattle,  or  any  of  the  properties  and  goods 
of  the  church.  Let  the  mind  of  the  metropolitan  be  always 
at  peace  and  free  from  trouble,  with  uprightness  of  heart  let 
him  pray  to  God  for  us,  our  children  and  our  nation.  Who- 
ever, shall  lay  hands  on  anything  that  is  sacred,  shall  be  held 
guilty,  he  shall  incur  the  wrath  of  God  and  the  penalty 
of  death,  that  others  may  be  dismayed  at  his  fate.  When 
the  tribute  or  other  dues,  such  as  custom  duties,  plough- 
tax,  tolls  or  relays  are  levied,  or  when  we  wish  to  raise 
troops  among  our  subjects,  let  nothing  be  exacted  from 
the  cathedral  churches  under  the  metropolitan  Peter,  or 
from  any  of  his  clergy  :  .  .  .  whatever  may  be  exacted 
from  the  clergy,  shall  be  returned  threefold.  .  .  Their  laws, 
their  churches,  their  monasteries  and  chapels  shall  be  re- 
spected; whoever  condemns  or  blames  this  religion,  shall 

R 


242  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

not  be  allowed  to  excuse  himself  under  any  pretext,  but 
shall  be  punished  with  death.  The  brothers  and  sons  of 
priests  and  deacons,  living  at  the  same  table  and  in  the 
same  house,  shall  enjoy  the  same  privileges."  * 

That  these  were  no  empty  words  and  that  the  toleration  here 
promised  became  a  reality,  may  be  judged  from  a  letter  sent 
to  the  Khan  by  Pope  John  XXII  in  1318,  in  which  he  thanks 
the  Muslim  prince  for  the  favour  he  showed  to  his  Christian 
subjects  and  the  kind  treatment  they  received  at  his  hands.2 
The  successors  of  Uzbek  Khan  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
animated  by  the  same  zeal  for  the  spread  of  Islam  as  he 
had  shown,  and  could  not  be  expected  to  succeed  where  he 
failed.  So  long  as  the  Russians  paid  their  taxes,  they  were 
left  free  to  worship  according  to  their  own  desires,  and  the 
Christian  religion  had  become  too  closely  intertwined  with 
the  life  of  the  people  to  be  disturbed,  even  had  efforts  been 
made  to  turn  them  from  the  faith  of  their  fathers;  for 
Christianity  had  been  the  national  religion  of  the  Russian 
people  for  well-nigh  three  centuries  before  the  Mongols 
established  themselves  in  Russian  territory.    • 

Another  race  many  years  before  had  tried  to  win  the 
Russians  to  Islam  but  had  likewise  failed,  viz.  the  Muslim 
Bulgarians  who  were  found  in  the  tenth  century  on  the 
banks  of  the  Volga,  and  who  probably  owed  their  con- 
version to  the  Muslim  merchants,  trading  in  furs  and 
other  commodities  of  the  North;  their  conversion  must 
have  taken  place  some  time  before  a.d.  921,  when  the 
caliph  al-Muqtadir  sent  an  envoy  to  confirm  them  in  the 
faith  and  instruct  them  in  the  tenets  and  ordinances  of 
Islam.3 

These  Bulgarians  attempted  the  conversion  of  Vladimir, 
the  then  sovereign  of  Russia,  who  (the  Russian  chronicler 
tells  us)  had  found  it  necessary  to  choose  some  religion  better 
than  his  pagan  creed,  but  they  failed  to  overcome  his  objec- 
tions to  the  rite  of  circumcision  and  to  the  prohibition  of 

1  Karamzin,  vol.  iv.  pp.  391-4. 

2  Hammer-Purgstall  :  Geschichte  der  Goldenen  Horde  in  Kiptschak, 
p.  290. 

3  De  Baschkiris  quae  memoriae  prodita  sunt  ab  Ibn-Foszlano  et  Jakuto, 
interprets  C.  N.  Fraehnio.  (Memoires  de  l'Academie  Imperiale  des  Sciences 
de  St.  Petersbourg,  tome  viii.  p.  626.     1822.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG  THE  MONGOLS    243 

wine,  the  use  of  which,  he  declared,  the  Russians  could  never 
give  up,  as  it  was  the  very  joy  of  their  life.  Equally  un- 
successful were  the  Jews  who  came  from  the  country  of 
the  Khazars  on  the  Caspian  Sea  and  had  won  over  the 
king  of  that  people  to  the  Mosaic  faith.1  After  listening 
to  their  arguments,  Vladimir  asked  them  where  their 
country  was.  "  Jerusalem,"  they  replied,  "  but  God  in 
His  anger  has  scattered  us  over  the  whole  world."  "  Then 
you  are  cursed  of  God,"  cried  the  king,  "  and  yet  want  to 
teach  others  :  begone  !  we  have  no  wish,  like  you,  to  be 
without  a  country."  The  most  favourable  impression  was 
made  by  a  Greek  priest  who,  after  a  brief  criticism  of  the 
other  religions,  set  forth  the  whole  scheme  of  Christian 
teaching  beginning  with  the  creation  of  the  world  and  the 
story  of  the  fall  of  man  and  ending  with  the  seven  oecumenical 
councils  accepted  by  the  Greek  Church ;  then  he  showed  the 
prince  a  picture  of  the  Last  Judgment  with  the  righteous 
entering  paradise  and  the  wicked  being  thrust  down  into 
hell,  and  promised  him  the  heritage  of  heaven,  if  he  would 
be  baptised.  But  Vladimir  was  unwilling  to  make  a 
rash  choice  of  a  substitute  for  his  pagan  religion,  so 
he  called  his  boyards  together  and  having  told  them 
of  the  accounts  he  had  received  of  the  various  religions, 
asked  them  for  their  advice.  "  Prince,"  they  replied, 
"  every  man  praises  his  own  religion,  and  if  you  would 
make  choice  of  the  best,  send  wise  men  into  the  different 
countries  to  discover  which  of  all  the  nations  honours 
God  in  the  manner  most  worthy  of  Him."  So  the  prince 
chose  out  for  this  purpose  ten  men  who  were  eminent 
for  their  wisdom.  These  ambassadors  found  among  the 
Bulgarians  mean-looking  places  of  worship,  gloomy  prayers 
and  solemn  faces;  among  the  German  Catholics  religious 
ceremonies  that  lacked  both  grandeur  and  magnificence. 
At  length  they  reached  Constantinople  :  "Let  them  see 
the  glory  of  our  God,"  said  the  Emperor.  So  they  were 
taken  to  the  church  of  Santa  Sophia,  where  the  Patriarch, 
clad  in  his  pontifical  robes,  was  celebrating  mass.  The 
magnificence  of  the  building,  the  rich  vestments  of  the 
priests,  the  ornaments  of  the  altars,  the  sweet  odour  of 

1  Abu  'Ubayd  al-Bakrl,  pp.  470-1. 


244  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

the  incense,  the  reverent  silence  of  the  people,  and  the 
mysterious  solemnity  of  the  ceremonial  filled  the  savage 
Russians  with  wonder  and  amazement.  It  seemed  to  them 
that  this  church  must  be  the  dwelling  of  the  Most  High, 
and  that  He  manifested  His  glory  therein  to  mortals.  On 
their  return  to  Kief,  the  ambassadors  gave  the  prince  an 
account  of  their  mission ;  they  spoke  with  contempt  of  the 
religion  of  the  Prophet  and  had  little  to  say  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith,  but  were  enthusiastic  in  their  eulogies  of  the 
Greek  Church.  "  Every  man,"  they  said,  "  who  has  put 
his  lips  to  a  sweet  draught,  henceforth  abhors  anything 
bitter;  wherefore  we  having  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
faith  of  the  Greek  Church  desire  none  other."  Vladimir 
once  more  consulted  his  boyards,  who  said  unto  him,  "  Had 
not  the  Greek  faith  been  best  of  all,  Olga,  your  grandmother, 
the  wisest  of  mortals,  would  never  have  embraced  it." 
Whereupon  Vladimir  hesitated  no  longer  and  in  a.d.  988 
declared  himself  a  Christian.  On  the  day  after  his  baptism 
he  threw  down  the  idols  his  forefathers  had  worshipped,  and 
issued  an  edict  that  all  the  Russians,  masters  and  slaves, 
rich  and  poor,  should  submit  to  be  baptised  into  the 
Christian  faith.1 

Thus  Christianity  became  the  national  religion  of  the 
Russian  people,  and  after  the  Mongol  conquest,  the  dis- 
tinctive national  characteristics  of  Russians  and  Tatars 
that  have  kept  the  two  races  apart  to  the  present  day, 
the  bitter  hatred  of  the  Tatar  yoke,  the  devotion  of  the 
Russians  to  their  own  faith  and  the  want  of  religious  zeal 
on  the  part  of  the  Tatars,  kept  the  conquered  race  from 
adopting  the  religion  of  the  conqueror.  Especially  has 
the  prohibition  of  spirituous  liquors  by  the  laws  of  Islam 
been  supposed  to  have  stood  in  the  way  of  the  adoption  of 
this  religion  by  the  Russian  people. 

It  would  appear  that  not  until  after  the  promulgation 
of  the  edict  of  religious  toleration  in  1905  throughout  the 
Russian  empire  and  the  active  Muslim  propaganda  that 
followed  it,  were  cases  observed  of  Russians  being  converted 
to  Islam,  and  those  that  have  occurred  are  ascribed  to  the 
strong  attraction  of  the  material  help  offered  by  the  Tatars 

1  Karamsin,  tome  i.  pp.  259-71. 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG   THE  TATARS    245 

to  such  converts  and  the  influence  of  the  moral  strength 
of  the  Muslims  themselves.1 

Not  that  the  Tatars  in  Russia  had  been  altogether  in- 
operative in  promoting  the  spread  of  Islam  during  the 
preceding  centuries.  The  distinctly  Hellenic  type  of  face 
that  is  to  be  found  among  the  so-called  Tatars  of  the  Crimea 
has  led  to  the  conjecture  that  these  Muhammadans  have 
absorbed  into  their  community  the  Greek  and  Italian 
populations  that  they  found  settled  on  the  Crimean  penin- 
sula, and  that  we  find  among  them  the  Muhammadanised 
descendants  of  the  indigenous  inhabitants,  and  of  the 
Genoese  colonists.2  A  traveller  of  the  seventeenth  century 
tells  us  that  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea  tried  to  induce  their 
slaves  to  become  Muhammadans,  and  won  over  many  of 
them  to  this  faith  by  promising  them  their  liberty  if  they 
would  be  persuaded.3  Conversions  to  Islam  from  among 
the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea  are  also  reported  after  the 
proclamation  of  religious  liberty  in  1905. 4 

A  brief  reference  may  here  be  made  to  the  Tatars  in 
Lithuania,  where  small  groups  of  them  have  been  settled 
since  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century ;  these  Muslim 
immigrants,  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  a  Christian  population, 
have  preserved  their  old  faith,  but  (probably  for  political 
reasons)  do  not  appear  to  have  attempted  to  proselytise. 
But  they  have  been  in  the  habit  of  marrying  Lithuanian 
and  Polish  women,  whose  children  were  always  brought  up 
as  Muslims,  whereas  no  Muhammadan  girl  was  permitted 
to  marry  a  Christian.  The  grand  dukes  of  Lithuania  in 
the  fifteenth  century  encouraged  the  marriage  of  Christian 
women  with  their  Tatar  troops,  on  whom  they  bestowed 
grants  of  land  and  other  privileges.5 

One  of  the  most  curious  incidents  in  the  missionary 
history  of  Islam  is  the  conversion  of  the  Kirghiz  of  Central 
Asia  by  Tatar  mullas,  who  preached  Islam  among  them 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  emissaries  of  the  Russian 
government.     The  Kirghiz  began  to  come  under  Russian  rule 

1  Bobrovnikoff,  p.  13. 

2  Reclus,  tome  v.  p.  831.     R.  du  M.  M.,  tome  iii.  pp.  76,  78- 

3  Relation  des  Tartares,  par  Jean  de  Luca,  p.  17.     (Thevenot,  tome  1.) 

4  Islam  and  Missions,  p.  257. 

5  Gasztowtt,  pp.  321-3.     R.  du  M.  M.,  xi.  (1910),  pp.  287  sqq. 


246  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

about  173 1,  and  for  120  years  all  diplomatic  correspondence 
was  carried  on  with  them  in  the  Tatar  language  under 
the  delusion  that  they  were  ethnographically  the  same 
as  the  Tatars  of  the  Volga.  Another  misunderstanding  on 
the  part  of  the  Russian  government  was  that  the  Kirghiz 
were  Musalmans,  whereas  in  the  eighteenth  century  they 
were  nearly  all  Shamanists,  as  a  large  number  of  them  were 
still  up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  At 
the  time  of  the  annexation  of  their  country  to  the  Russian 
empire  only  a  few  of  their  Khans  and  Sultans  had  any 
knowledge  of  the  faith  of  Islam — and  that  very  con- 
fused and  vague.  Not  a  single  mosque  was  to  be 
found  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Kirghiz  Steppes, 
or  a  single  religious  teacher  of  the  faith  of  the  Prophet, 
and  the  Kirghiz  owed  their  conversion  to  Islam  to 
the  fact  that  the  Russians,  taking  them  for  Muhammadans, 
insisted  on  treating  them  as  such.  Large  sums  of  money 
were  given  for  the  building  of  mosques,  and  mullas 
were  sent  to  open  schools  and  instruct  the  young  in  the 
tenets  of  the  Muslim  faith  :  the  Kirghiz  scholars  were  to 
receive  every  day  a  small  sum  to  support  themselves  on, 
and  the  fathers  were  to  be  induced  to  send  their  children 
to  the  schools  by  presents  and  other  means  of  persuasion. 
An  incontrovertible  proof  that  the  Musalman  propaganda 
made  its  way  into  the  Kirghiz  Steppes  from  the  side  of 
Russia,  is  the  circumstance  that  it  was  especially  those 
Kirghiz  who  were  more  contiguous  to  Europe  that  first 
became  Musalmans,  and  the  old  Shamanism  lingered  up 
to  the  nineteenth  century  among  those  who  wandered 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Khiva,  Bukhara  and  Khokand, 
though  these  for  centuries  had  been  Muhammadan 
countries.1 

This  is  probably  the  only  instance  of  a  Christian  govern- 
ment co-operating  in  the  promulgation  of  Islam,  and  is 
the  more  remarkable  inasmuch  as  the  Russian  government 
of  this  period  was  attempting  to  force  Christianity  on  its 
Muslim  subjects  in  Europe,  in  continuation  of  the  efforts 

1  The  Russian  Policy  regarding  Central  Asia.  An  historical  sketch. 
By  Prof.  V.  Grigorief.  (Eugene  Schuyler  :  Turkistan,  vol.  ii.  pp.  405-6. 
5th  ed.  London,  1876) ;  Franz  von  Schwarz  :  Turkestan,  p.  58.  (Freiburg, 
1910.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM  AMONG  THE  TATARS    247 

made  in  the  sixteenth  century  soon  after  the  conquest  of 
the  Khanate  of  Kazan. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  many  of 
the  Kirghiz  dwelling  in  the  vast  plains  stretching  south- 
wards from  the  district  of  Tobolsk  towards  Turkistan  were 
still  heathen,  and  the  Russian  government  was  approached 
for  permission  for  a  Christian  mission  to  be  established 
among  them.  But  this  request  was  not  granted,  on  the 
ground  that  "  these  people  were  as  yet  too  wild  and  savage 
to  be  accessible  to  the  Gospel.  But  soon  after  other  mission- 
aries, not  depending  on  the  good-will  of  any  government, 
and  having  more  zeal  and  understanding,  occupied  this 
field  and  won  the  whole  of  the  Kirghis  tribe  to  the  faith  of 
Islam."  1 

After  the  conquest  of  Kazan  by  the  Russians  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  occupation  of  the  former  Tatar 
Khanate  was  followed  up  by  an  official  Christian  missionary 
movement,  and  a  number  of  the  heathen  population  of 
the  Khanate  were  baptised,  the  labours  of  the  clergy  being 
actively  seconded  by  the  police  and  the  civil  authorities, 
but  as  the  Russian  priests  did  not  understand  the  language 
of  their  converts  and  soon  neglected  them,  it  had  to  be 
admitted  that  the  new  converts  "  shamelessly  retain  many 
horrid  Tartar  customs,  and  neither  hold  nor  know  the 
Christian  faith."  When  spiritual  exhortations  failed,  the 
government  ordered  its  officials  to  ' '  pacify,  imprison,  put 
in  irons,  and  thereby  unteach  and  frighten  from  the 
Tartar  faith  those  who,  though  baptised,  do  not  obey  the 
admonitions  of  the  Metropolitan." 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  Russian  government  made 
fresh  efforts  to  convert  the  heathen  tribes  and  the  relapsed 
Tatars,  and  held  out  many  inducements  to  them  to  become 
baptised.  Catherine  II  in  1778  ordered  that  all  the  new 
converts  should  sign  a  written  promise  to  the  effect  that 
"  they  would  completely  forsake  their  infidel  errors,  and, 
avoiding  all  intercourse  with  unbelievers,  would  hold  firmly 
and  unwaveringly  the  Christian  faith  and  its  dogmas." 
But  in  spite  of  all,  these  so-called  "  baptised  Tartars  "  were 
Christians  only  in  name,  and  soon  began  to  try  to  escape 

1  Islam  and  Missions,  pp.  251-2,  255. 


248  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

from  the  propagandist  efforts  of  the  Orthodox  Church  and 
abandoned  Christianity  for  Islam,  their  so-called  conversion 
merely  serving  as  a  stepping-stone  to  their  entrance  into 
the  faith  of  the  Prophet. 

They  may,  indeed,  have  been  inscribed  in  the  official 
registers  as  Christians,  but  they  resolutely  stood  out  against 
any  efforts  that  were  made  to  Christianise  them.     In  a 
semi-official   article,   published  in   1872,   the   writer  says  : 
"  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  attention  that  a  long  series  of  evident 
apostasies   coincides   with   the   beginning   of  measures   to 
confirm  the  converts  in  the  Christian  faith.   There  must  be, 
therefore,  some  collateral  cause  producing  those  cases  of 
apostasy  precisely  at  the  moment  when  the  contrary  might 
be  expected."     The  fact  seems  to  be  that  these  Tatars 
having    all    the    time    remained    Muhammadan    at    heart, 
resisted  the  active  measures  taken  to  make  their  nominal 
profession  of  Christianity  in  any  way  a  reality.1     But  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  efforts  were  made  to 
Christianise  these  heathen  and  Muslim  tribes  by  means  of 
schools  established  in  their  midst.     In  this  way  it  was  hoped 
to  win  the  younger  generation,  since  otherwise  it  seemed 
impossible  to  gain  an  entrance  for  Christianity  among  the 
Tatars,  for,  as  a  Russian  professor  said,  "  The  citizens  of 
Kazan  are  hard  to  win,  but  we  get  some  little  folk  from  the 
villages  on  the  steppe,  and  train  them  in  the  fear  of  God. 
Once  they  are  with  us  they  can  never  turn  back."  2    For 
the  Russian  criminal  code  used  to  contain  severe  enactments 
against  those  who  fell  away  from  the  Orthodox  Church,3 
and  sentenced  any  person  convicted  of  converting  a  Christian 
to  Islam  to  the  loss  of  all  civil  rights  and  to  imprisonment 
with  hard  labour  for  a  term  varying  from  eight  to  ten  years. 
In  spite,  however,  of  the  edicts  of  the  government,  Muslim 
propagandism   succeeded  in  winning  over  whole  villages 

1  D.  Mackenzie  Wallace  :  Russia,  vol.  i.  pp.  242-4.  (London,  1877, 
4th  ed.)  R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  ix.  (1909),  p.  249.  Bobrovnikoff,  p.  5  sqq. 
a  W.  Hepworth  Dixon  :  Free  Russia,  vol.  ii.  p.  284.  (London,  1870.) 
3  E.  g.  "  En  1883,  des  paysans  Tatars  du  village  d'Apozof  etaient  pour- 
suivis,  devant  le  tribunal  de  Kazan,  pour  avoir  abandonne  l'orthodoxie. 
Les  accuses  declaraient  avoir  toujours  ete  musalmans;  sept  d'entre  eux 
n'en  furent  pas  moins  condamnes,  comme  apostats,  aux  travaux  forces.  .  .  . 
Beaucoup  de  ces  relaps  ont  ete  deportes  en  Siberie."  Anatole  Leroy- 
Beaulieu  :  L'Empire  des  Tsars  et  les  Russes,  tome  iii.  p.  645.  (Paris, 
1889-93.) 


SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   AMONG   THE   TATARS     249 

to  the  faith  of  Islam,  especially  among  the  tribes  of  north- 
eastern Russia.1 

The  town  of  Kazan  is  the  chief  centre  of  this  missionary 
activity ;  a  large  number  of  Muslim  publications  are  printed 
here  every  year,  and  mullas  go  forth  from  the  University 
to  convert  the  pagans  in  the  villages  and  bring  back  to 
Islam  the  Tatars  who  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  bap- 
tised.    The    increasing  number  of   these  Christian  Tatars, 
who  have  gone  to  swell  the  ranks  of  Islam,  has  alarmed  the 
clergy  of  the  Orthodox  Church,  but  their  efforts  have  failed 
to  check  the  success  of  the  mullas.2    Especially  since  the 
edict  of  toleration  in  1905,  mass  conversions  have  been 
reported,  e.  g.  in  1909,  ninety-one  families  in  the  village  of 
Atomva  are  said  to  have  become  Muhammadan,3  and  as 
many  as   53,000  persons  between   1906  and   1910.4     This 
propaganda  is  said  to  owe  much  of  its  success  to  the  higher 
moral  level  of  life  in  Muslim  society,  as  well  as  to  the  stronger 
feeling  of  solidarity  that  prevails   in  it ;  5    moreover,  the 
methods  adopted  by  the  Russian  clergy,  supported  by  the 
government,  to  make  the  so-called  Christian  Tatars  more 
orthodox,  have  caused  the  Christian  faith  to  become  un- 
popular among  them.  6     On  the  other  hand,  the  propaganda 
of  Islam  is  very  zealously  carried  forward;  "  every  simple, 
untaught  Moslem  is  a  missionary  of  his  religion,  and  the 
poor,  dark,  untaught  heathen  or  half-heathen  tribes  cannot 
resist  their  force.     In  many  villages  of  baptised  aborigines 
the  men  go  away  for  the  winter  to  work  as  tailors  in  Moslem 
villages.     There  they  are  converted  to   Islam,   and  they 
return   to   their   villages   as   fanatics   bringing   with   them 
Moslem  ideas  with  which  to  influence  their  homes."  7 

The  tribes  that  have  chiefly  come  under  the  influence  of 
this  missionary  movement  are  the  Votiaks,  the  greater  part 
of  whom  are  baptised  Christians,  but  many  became  Muslims 
in  the  eighteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
centuries ;  and  the  influence  of  Islam  is  continually  growing 
both  among  those  that  are  Christian  and  among  the  small 

1  D.  Mackenzie  Wallace  :  Russia,  vol.  i.  p.  245. 

2  Palmieri,  pp.  85-6.     R.  du  M.  M.,  i.  (1907).  PP-  l62  s(l- 

3  R.  du  M.  M..  ix.  (1909),  p.  294. 

*  Id.  x.  (1910),  p.  413,     Jd,  i,  (1907),  p-  273.  *  W.  ix.  p   252. 

6  Id.  p.  249,  7  Bobrovmkott,  p.  12. 


250  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

remnant   that   is   still   heathen.     The   Cheremiss,  like  the 
Votiaks,  are  a  Finnish  tribe,  about  a  quarter  of  whom  are 
still  heathen,  but  many  have  already  embraced  Islam  and 
it  is  probable  that  most  of  them  will  soon  adopt  the  same 
religion.     The  movement  of  the  Cheremiss  towards  Islam 
made  itself  manifest  in  the  nineteenth  century  and  though 
many  of  them  were  nominally   Christian,   whole   villages 
of  them  became  Muhammadan  despite  the  laws  forbidding 
conversion  except  to  the  Orthodox  Church.1     They  became 
Muhammadan  through  their  immediate  contact  with  the 
Bashkirs  and  Tatars,  whose  family  and  social  customs  were 
very  similar  to  their  own.     The  process  sometimes  began 
with  intermarriages  with  Muhammadans — e.  g.  in  one  village 
a  Cheremiss  family  intermarried  with  some  Bashkirs  and 
adopted   their   faith;     the   converts    being   persecuted   as 
"  circumcised  dogs  "  in  their  own  village,  moved  away  and 
founded  a  new  settlement  some  miles  off,  some  wealthy 
Bashkirs   helping   them   with   money;    but   as   they   were 
officially  registered  as  heathen,   they  could  not   get   per- 
mission for  the  building  of  a  mosque,  so  a  few  Bashkir 
families  in  the  neighbourhood  moved  into  the  new  settle- 
ment, in  order  to  make  up  the  number  requisite  for  obtaining 
the  necessary  official  permission.2     A  similar  process  has 
several  times  occurred  in  other  villages  in  which  Muham- 
madans have  come  to  settle  and  have  intermarried  with 
Cheremiss.3     In    other    cases    there    has    been    a    definite 
missionary  movement— e.  g.  in  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  village  of  Karakul  was  inhabited  by 
Christian  Cheremiss,  but  shortly  after  the  middle  of  the 
century  some  families  were  converted  to  Islam  by  a  Chere- 
miss who  had  become  a  mulla ;  on  his  death  he  was  succeeded 
by  a  Bashkir  from  another  village.     Later  on,  the  converts 
moved  away  to   Tatar  and  Bashkir  villages,   their  place 
being   taken   by  Tatars,   until   the   whole   village  became 
practically  Tatar,  few  of  the  younger  generation  retaining 
any  knowledge  of  the  Cheremiss  language,  and  intermarriages 
taking  place  only  with  Tatars.4     Apart  from  this  prosely- 
tising activity,  there  has  been  a  very  distinct  spread  of 

1  Reclus,  tome  v.  pp.  746,  748.  2  Eruslanov,  pp.  3,  6. 

3  Id.  pp.  7-8.  *  Id.  pp.  5-6. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  TATARS    251 

Tatar  influence  in  speech  and  manners  among  the  Cheremiss. 
The  Tatar  language  has  spread  among  them,  bringing  with 
it  the  moral  and  religious  ideas  of  Islam;  the  adoption 
of  the  Tatar  dress  is  held  to  be  a  sign  of  superior  culture, 
and  if  a  Cheremiss  does  not  dress  like  a  Tatar  he  runs  the 
risk  of  being  laughed  at  by  the  first  Tatar  he  meets  or  by 
his  fellow  Cheremiss;  all  this  cultural  movement  tends  to 
the  ultimate  adoption  of  the  Tatar  religion.1  After  their 
conversion,  the  Cheremiss  are  said  to  be  very  zealous  in 
the  propagation  of  their  new  faith  and  receive  the  assistance 
of  wealthy  Tatars ; 2  on  the  other  hand,  the  Russians  despise 
the  Cheremiss  as  an  inferior  race  and  apply  opprobrious 
epithets  even  to  those  among  them  who  are  Christians.3 
About  one-fourth  of  the  Cheremiss  are  still  heathen,  but 
Muslim  influences  are  so  powerful  among  them  that  it  is 
probable  that  in  course  of  time  they  will  for  the  most  part 
become  Muhammadans.4  The  Chuvash,  who  number  about 
1,000,000,  have  nearly  all  been  baptised;  there  are  about 
20,000  of  them  that  are  still  heathen  but  these  are  gradually 
being  absorbed  by  Islam,  while  some  of  the  Christian 
Chuvash  have  become  Muhammadans  and  the  rest  are 
coming  under  Muslim  influences.  The  extent  of  their  zeal 
for  their  converts  may  be  judged  from  the  instance  of  a 
Christian  Chuvash  village,  the  priest  of  which  had  spent 
several  years  in  collecting  the  300  roubles  necessary  for 
the  repair  of  the  church;  eight  Chuvash  families  became 
Muhammadan  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  2000 
roubles  were  collected  for  the  building  of  a  mosque.5  Such 
ready  activity  is  characteristic  of  the  Muslim  propaganda 
now  being  carried  among  the  aboriginal  tribes.  Each 
family  that  accepts  Islam  receives  help  either  in  money  or 
in  kind:  a  house  is  built  for  one;  a  field,  cattle,  etc.,  are 
purchased  for  another;  when  several  families  in  a  village 
are  converted,  a  mosque  is  built  for  them  and  a  school 
established  for  their  children.6 

Of  the  spread  of  Islam  among  the  Tatars  of  Siberia,  we 
have  a  few  particulars.     It  was  not  until  the  latter  half  of 

1  Eruslanov,  pp.  9,  13.  2  Id.  pp.  17,  20,  36. 

3  Id.  pp.  38-9.  4  Bobrovnikoff,  p.  22. 

5  Id.  pp.  21-2,  31.  6  Id.  p.  13.     Islam  and  Missions,  p.  257. 


252  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  sixteenth  century  that  it  gained  a  footing  in  this  country, 
but  even  before  this  period  Muhammadan  missionaries  had 
from  time  to  time  made  their  way  into  Siberia  with  the  hope 
of  winning  the  heathen  population  over  to  the  acceptance 
of  their  faith,  but  the  majority  of  them  met  with  a  martyr's 
death.     When  Siberia  came  under  Muhammadan  rule,  in 
the  reign  of   Kuchum  Khan,  the  graves  of  seven  of   these 
missionaries  were  discovered  by  an  aged  Shaykh  who  came 
from  Bukhara  to  search  them  out,  being  anxious  that  some 
memorial  should  be  kept  of  the  devotion  of  these  martyrs 
to  the  faith  :  he  was  able  to  give  the  names  of  this  number, 
and  up  to  the  last  century  their  memory  was  still  revered 
by  the  Tatars  of  Siberia.1     When  Kuchum  Khan  (who  was 
descended  from  JtijI  Khan,  the  eldest  son  of  Chingiz  Khan) 
became  Khan  of   Siberia  (about   the  year  1570),  either  by 
right  of  conquest  or  (according  to  another  account)  at  the 
invitation  of  the  people  whose  Khan  had  died  without  issue,2 
he  made  every  effort  for  the  conversion  of  his  subjects,  and 
sent  to  Bukhara  asking  for  missionaries  to  assist  him  in  this 
pious  undertaking.     One  of  the  missionaries  who  was  sent 
from  Bukhara  has  left  us  an  account  of  how  he  set  out  with 
a  companion  to  the  capital  of  Kuchum  Khan,  on  the  bank 
of  the  Irtish.     Here,  after  two  years,  his  companion  died, 
and,  for  some  reasons  that  the  writer  does  not  mention,  he 
went  back  again ;  but  soon  afterwards  returned  to  the  scene 
of  his  labours,  bringing  with  him  another  coadjutor,  when 
Kuchum  Khan  had  appealed  for  help  once  more  to  Bukhara.3 
Missionaries  also  came  to  Siberia  from  Kazan.     But  the 
advancing    tide    of    Russian    conquest    soon    brought    the 
proselytising  efforts  of  Kuchum  Khan  to  an  end  before  much 
had  been  accomplished,  especially  as  many  of  the  tribes 
under  his  rule  offered  a  strong  opposition  to  all  attempts 
made  to  convert  them. 

But  though  interrupted  by  the  Russian  conquest,  the 
progress  of  Islam  was  by  no  means  stopped.  Mullas  from 
Bukhara  and  other  cities  of  Central  Asia  and  merchants 
from  Kazan  were  continually  active  as  missionaries  of  Islam 
in  Siberia.     In  1745  an  entrance  was  first  effected  among 

1  G.  F.  Miiller  :  Sammlung  Russischer  Geschichte,  vol.  vii.  p.  191. 

2  Id.  vol.  vii.  pp.  183-4.  3  Radloff,  vol.  i.  p.  147. 


SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  AMONG  THE  TATARS    253 

the  Baraba  Tatars  (between  the  Irtish  and  the  Ob),  and 
though  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  many  were 
still  heathen,  they  have  now  all  become  Musalmans.1  The 
conversion  of  the  Kirghiz  has  already  been  spoken  of  above  : 
the  history  of  most  of  the  other  Muslim  tribes  of  Siberia 
is  very  obscure,  but  their  conversion  is  probably  of  a  recent 
date.  Among  the  instruments  of  Muhammadan  propaganda 
at  the  present  time,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  large  place 
taken  by  the  folk-songs  of  the  Kirghiz,  in  which,  interwoven 
with  tale  and  legend,  the  main  truths  of  Islam  make  their 
way  into  the  hearts  of  the  common  people.2 

1  Jadrinzew,  p.  138.     Radloff,  vol.  i.  p.  241. 

2  Radloff,  vol.  i.  pp.  472,  497. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN    INDIA. 

The  Muhammadan  invasions  of  India  and  the  foundation 
and  growth  of  the  Muhammadan  power  in  that  country, 
have  found  many  historians,  both  among  contemporary  and 
later  writers.  But  hitherto  no  one  has  attempted  to  write 
a  history  of  the  spread  of  Islam  in  India,  considered  apart 
from  the  military  successes  and  administrative  achievements 
of  its  adherents.  Indeed,  to  many,  such  a  task  must  appear 
impossible.  For  India  has  often  been  picked  out  as  a  typical 
instance  of  a  country  in  which  Islam  owes  its  existence  and 
continuance  in  existence  to  the  settlement  in  it  of  foreign, 
conquering  Muhammadan  races,  who  have  transmitted  their 
faith  to  their  descendants,  and  only  succeeded  in  spreading 
it  beyond  their  own  circle  by  means  of  persecution  and 
forced  conversions.  Thus  the  missionary  spirit  of  Islam  is 
supposed  to  show  itself  in  its  true  light  in  the  brutal  massacres 
of  Brahmans  by  Mahmud  of  Ghazna,  in  the  persecutions 
of  Aurangzeb,  the  forcible  circumcisions  effected  by  Haydar 
'All,  Tipii  Sultan  and  the  like. 

But  among  the  sixty-six  millions  of  Indian  Musalmans 
there  are  vast  numbers  of  converts  or  descendants  of  con- 
verts, in  whose  conversion  force  played  no  part  and  the 
only  influences  at  work  were  the  teaching  and  persuasion 
of  peaceful  missionaries.  This  class  of  converts  forms  a 
very  distinct  group  by  itself  which  can  be  distinguished 
from  that  of  the  forcibly  converted  and  the  other  hetero- 
geneous elements  of  which  Muslim  India  is  made  up.  The 
entire  community  may  be  roughly  divided  into  those  of 
foreign  race  who  brought  their  faith  into  the  country  along 
with  them,  and  those  who  have  been  converted  from  one 
of  the  previous  religions  of  the  country  under  various  induce- 

254 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   INDIA         255 

ments  and  at  many  different  periods  of  history.  The  foreign 
settlement  consists  of  three  main  bodies  :  first,  and  numeri- 
cally the  most  important,  are  the  immigrants  from  across 
the  north-west  frontier,  who  are  found  chiefly  in  Sind  and 
the  Panjab;  next  come  the  descendants  of  the  court  and 
armies  of  the  various  Muhammadan  dynasties,  mainly  in 
Upper  India  and  to  a  much  smaller  extent  in  the  Deccan; 
lastly,  all  along  the  west  coast  are  settlements  probably  of 
Arab  descent,  whose  original  founders  came  to  India  by 
sea.1  But  the  number  of  families  of  foreign  origin  that 
actually  settled  in  India  is  nowhere  great  except  in  the 
Panjab  and  its  neighbourhood.  More  than  half  the  Muslim 
population  of  India  has  indeed  assumed  appellations  of 
distinctly  foreign  races,  such  as  Shaykh,  Beg,  Khan,  and  even 
Sayyid,  but  the  greater  portion  of  them  are  local  converts  or 
descendants  of  converts,  who  have  taken  the  title  of  the 
person  of  highest  rank  amongst  those  by  whom  they  were 
converted  or  have  affiliated  themselves  to  the  aristocracy 
of  Islam  on  even  less  plausible  grounds.2  Of  this  latter 
section  of  the  community — the  converted  natives  of  the 
country — part  no  doubt  owed  their  change  of  religion  to 
force  and  official  pressure,  but  by  far  the  majority  of  them 
entered  the  pale  of  Islam  of  their  own  free  will.  The  history 
of  the  proselytising  movements  and  the  social  influences  that 
brought  about  their  conversion  has  hitherto  received  very 
little  attention,  and  most  of  the  commonly  accessible  histories 
of  the  Muhammadans  in  India,  whether  written  by  European 
or  by  native  authors,  are  mere  chronicles  of  wars,  campaigns 
and  the  achievements  of  princes,  in  which  little  mention  of 
the  religious  life  of  the  time  finds  a  place,  unless  it  has 
taken  the  form  of  fanaticism  or  intolerance.  From  the 
biographies  of  the  Muslim  saints,  however,  and  from  local 
traditions,  something  may  be  learned  of  the  missionary  work 
that  was  carried  on  quite  independently  of  the  political  life 
of  the  country.  But  before  dealing  with  these  it  is  pro- 
posed to  give  an  account  of  the  official  propagation  of  Islam 
and  of  the  part  played  by  the  Muhammadan  rulers  in  the 
spread  of  their  faith. 

1  Census  of   India,    1891.     General   Report   by   J.   A.    Baines,   p.    167. 
(London,  1893.)  2  Id.  pp.  126,  207. 


256  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

From  the  fifteenth  year  after  the  death  of  the  Prophet, 
when  an  Arab  expedition  was  sent  into  Sind,  up  to  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  series  of  Muhammadan  invaders,  some 
founders  of  great  empires,  others  mere  adventurers,  poured 
into  India  from  the  north-west.     While  some  came  only  to 
plunder  and  retired  laden  with  spoils,  others  remained  to 
found  kingdoms  that  have  had  a  lasting  influence  to  the 
present  day.     But  of  none  of  these  do  we  learn  that  they 
were  accompanied  by  any  missionaries  or  preachers.     Not 
that  they  were  indifferent  to  their  religion.     To  many  of 
them,  their  invasion  of  India  appeared  in  the  light  of  a 
holy  war.     Such  was  evidently  the  thought  in  the  minds  of 
Mahmud    of   Ghaznp.   and   Timur.     The   latter,    after    his 
capture  of  Dehli,  writes  as  follows  in  his  autobiography  : — 
"  I  had  been  at  Dehli  fifteen  days,  which  time  I  passed  in 
pleasure  and  enjoyment,  holding  royal  Courts  and  giving 
great  feasts.     I  then  reflected  that  I  had  come  to  Hindustan 
to  war  against  infidels,  and  my  enterprise  had  been  so  blessed 
that  wherever  I  had  gone  I  had  been  victorious.     I  had 
triumphed  over  my  adversaries,  I  had  put  to  death  some 
lacs  of  infidels  and  idolaters,  and  I  had  stained  my  proselyt- 
ing sword  with  the  blood  of  the  enemies  of  the  faith.     Now 
this  crowning  victory  had  been  won,  and  I  felt  that  I  ought 
not  to  indulge  in  ease,  but  rather  to  exert  myself  in  warring 
against   the  infidels  of  Hindustan."1     Though  he  speaks 
much  of  his  "  proselyting  sword,"  it  seems,  however,  to  have 
served  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  sending  infidels  to  hell. 
Most  of  the  Muslim  invaders  seem  to  have  acted  in  a  very 
similar  way ;  in  the  name  of  Allah,  idols  were  thrown  down, 
their  priests  put  to  the  sword,  and  their  temples  destroyed  ; 
while  mosques  were  often  erected  in  their  place.     It  is  true 
that  the  offer  of  Islam  was  generally  made  to  the  unbelieving 
Hindus  before  any  attack  was  made  upon  them.2    Fear 
occasionally  dictated  a  timely  acceptance  of  such  offers  and 
led  to  conversions  which,  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Muham- 
madan invasion  at  least,  were  generally  short-lived  and 
ceased  to  be  effective  after  the  retreat  of  the  invader.     An 

1  Elliot,  vol.  ii.  p.  448. 

2  Muhammad  b.  Qasim  invited  the  Hindu  princes  to  embrace  Islam, 
and  the  invaders  who  followed  him  were  probably  equally  observant  of 
the  religious  law.     (Elliot,  vol.  i.  pp.  175,  207.) 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  INDIA         257 

illustration  in  point  is  furnished  by  the  story  of  Hardatta, 
a  ra'is  of  Bulandshahr,  whose  submission  to  Mahmiid  of 
Ghazna  is  thus  related  in  the  history  of  that  conqueror's 
campaigns  written  by  his  secretary.  "  At  length  (about 
a.d.  1019)  he  (i.  e.  Mahmiid)  arrived  at  the  fort  of  Barba,1 
in  the  country  of  Hardat,  who  was  one  of  the  ra'is,  that  is 
"  kings,"  in  the  Hindi  language.  When  Hardat  heard  of 
this  invasion  by  the  protected  warriors  of  God,  who  advanced 
like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  with  the  angels  around  them  on 
all  sides,  he  became  greatly  agitated,  his  steps  trembled,  and 
he  feared  for  his  life,  which  was  forfeited  under  the  law  of 
God.  So  he  reflected  that  his  safety  would  best  be  secured 
by  conforming  to  the  religion  of  Islam,  since  God's  sword 
was  drawn  from  the  scabbard,  and  the  whip  of  punishment 
was  uplifted.  He  came  forth,  therefore,  with  ten  thousand 
men,  who  all  proclaimed  their  anxiety  for  conversion  and 
their  rejection  of  idols.'' 2 

These  new  converts  probably  took  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  apostatising  presented  to  them  by  the  retreat  of  the 
conqueror — a  kind  of  action  which  we  find  the  early  Muham- 
madan  historians  of  India  continually  complaining  of.  For 
when  Qutb  al-Din  Ibak  attacked  Baran  in  1193,  he  was 
stoutly  opposed  by  Chandrasen,  the  then  Raja,  who  was  a 
lineal  descendant  of  Hardatta  and  whose  very  name  betrays 
his  Hindu  faith :  nor  do  we  hear  of  there  being  any 
Musalmans  remaining  under  his  rule.3 

But  these  conquerors  would  appear  to  have  had  very  little 
of  that  "  love  for  souls  "  which  animates  the  true  missionary 
and  which  has  achieved  such  great  conquests  for  Islam. 
The  Khiljis  (1290-1320),  the  Tughlaqs  (1320-1412),  and  the 
Lodis  (1451-1526)  were  generally  too  busily  engaged  in 
fighting  to  pay  much  regard  to  the  interests  of  religion,  or 
else  thought  more  of  the  exaction  of  tribute  than  of  the 
work  of  conversion.4    Not  that  they  were  entirely  lacking 

1  Or  Baran,  the  old  name  of  Bulandshahr.        2  Elliot,  vol.  ii.  pp.  42-3. 

3  Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  iii.  part  ii.  p.  85. 

4  "  The  military  adventurers,  who  founded  dynasties  in  Northern  India 
and  carved  out  kingdoms  in  the  Dekhan,  cared  little  for  things  spiritual ; 
most  of  them  had  indeed  no  time  for  proselytism,  being  continually  engaged 
in  conquest  or  in  civil  war.  They  were  usually  rough  Tartars  or  Moghals ; 
themselves  ill-grounded  in  the  faith  of  Mahomed,  and  untouched  by  the 
true  Semitic  enthusiasm  which  inspired  the  first  Arab  standard  bearers  of 

S 


258  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

in  religious  zeal :  e.  g.  the  Ghakkars,  a  barbarous  people  in 
the  mountainous  districts  of  the  North  of  the  Panjab,  who 
gave  the  early  invaders  much  trouble,  are  said  to  have  been 
converted  through  the  influence  of  Muhammad  Ghori  at  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century.  Their  chieftain  had  been  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Muhammadan  monarch,  who  induced  him 
to  become  a  Musalman,  and  then  confirming  him  in  his  title 
of  chief  of  this  tribe,  sent  him  back  to  convert  his  followers, 
many  of  whom  having  little  religion  of  their  own  were  easily 
prevailed  upon  to  embrace  Islam.1  According  to  Ibn 
Batiitah,  the  Khiljis  offered  some  encouragement  to  con- 
version by  making  it  a  custom  to  have  the  new  convert 
presented  to  the  sultan,  who  clad  him  in  a  robe  of  honour 
and  gave  him  a  collar  and  bracelets  of  gold,  of  a  value 
proportionate  to  his  rank.2  But  the  monarchs  of  the  earlier 
Muhammadan  dynasties  as  a  rule  evinced  very  little  prosely- 
tising zeal,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  parallel  in  their 
history  to  the  following  passage  from  the  autobiography  of 
Firuz  Shah  Tughlaq  (1351-1388)  :  "  I  encouraged  my  infidel 
subjects  to  embrace  the  religion  of  the  Prophet,  and  I 
proclaimed  that  every  one  who  repeated  the  creed  and 
became  a  Musalman  should  be  exempt  from  the  jizyah,  or 
poll  tax.  Information  of  this  came  to  the  ears  of  the  people 
at  large  and  great  numbers  of  Hindus  presented  themselves, 
and  were  admitted  to  the  honour  of  Islam.  Thus  they  came 
forward  day  by  day  from  every  quarter,  and,  adopting  the 
faith,  were  exonerated  from  the  jizyah,  and  were  favoured 
with  presents  and  honours."  3 

As  the  Muhammadan  power  became  consolidated,  and 
particularly  under  the  Mughal  dynasty,  the  religious  influ- 
ences of  Islam  naturally  became  more  permanent  and  per- 
sistent.   These  influences  are  certainly  apparent  in  the  Hindu 


Islam.  The  empire  which  they  set  up  was  purely  military,  and  it  was 
kept  in  that  state  by  the  half  success  of  their  conquests  and  the  comparative 
failure  of  their  spiritual  invasion.  They  were  strong  enough  to  prevent 
anything  like  religious  amalgamation  among  the  Hindus,  and  to  check  the 
gathering  of  tribes  into  nations;  but  so  far  were  they  from  converting 
India,  that  among  the  Mahommedans  themselves  their  own  faith  never 
acquired  an  entire  and  exclusive  monopoly  of  the  high  offices  of  adminis- 
tration."    (Sir  Alfred  C.  Lyall  :  Asiatic  Studies,  p.  289.)     (London,  1882.) 

1  Firishtah,  vol.  i.  p.  184. 

2  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iii.  p.  197.  3  Elliot,  vol.  iii.  p.  386. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         259 

theistic  movements  that  arose  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries,  and  Bishop  Lefroy  has  conjectured  that  the 
positive  character  of  Muslim  teaching  attracted  minds  that 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  vagueness  and  subjectivity  of  a 
Pantheistic  system  of  thought.  "  When  Mohammedanism, 
with  its  strong  grasp  of  the  reality  of  the  Divine  existence 
and,  as  flowing  from  this,  of  the  absolutely  fixed  and  objec- 
tive character  of  truth,  came  into  conflict  with  the  haziness 
of  Pantheistic  thought  and  the  subjectivity  of  its  belief,  it 
necessarily  followed,  not  only  that  it  triumphed  in  the 
struggle,  but  also  that  it  came  as  a  veritable  tonic  to  the 
life  and  thought  of  Upper  India,  quickening  into  a  fresh 
and  more  vigorous  life  many  minds  which  never  accepted  for 
themselves  its  intellectual  sway."  * 

A  powerful  incentive  to  conversion  was  offered,  when 
adherence  to  an  idolatrous  system  stood  in  the  way  of 
advancement  at  the  Muhammadan  courts;  and  though  a 
spirit  of  tolerance,  which  reached  its  culmination  under  the 
eclectic  Akbar,  was  very  often  shown  towards  Hinduism,  and 
respected  even,  for  the  most  part,  the  state  endowments  of 
that  religion  ;2  and  though  the  dread  of  unpopularity  and  the 
desire  of  conciliation  dictated  a  policy  of  non-interference 
and  deprecated  such  deeds  of  violence  and  such  outbursts  of 
fanaticism  as  had  characterised  the  earlier  period  of  invasion 
and  triumph,  still  such  motives  of  self-interest  gained  many 
converts  from  Hinduism  to  the  Muhammadan  faith.  Many 
Rajputs  became  converts  in  this  way,  and  their  descendants 
are  to  this  day  to  be  found  among  the  landed  aristocracy. 
The  most  important  perhaps  among  these  is  the  Musalman 
branch  of  the  great  Bachgoti  clan,  the  head  of  which  is  the 
premier  Muhammadan  noble  of  Oudh.  According  to  one 
tradition,  their  ancestor  Tilok  Chand  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Emperor  Babar,  and  to  regain  his  liberty  adopted  the 
faith  of  Islam ;  3  but  another  legend  places  his  conversion  in 
the  reign  of  Humayun.  This  prince  having  heard  of  the 
marvellous  beauty  of  Tilok  Chand's  wife,  had  her  carried 
off  while  she  was  at  a  fair.     No  sooner,  however,  was  she 

1  Mankind  and  the  Church,  p.  286.     (London,  1907.) 

2  Sir  Richard  Temple  :  India  in  1880,  p.  164.  (London,  1S81.)  Punjab 
States  Gazetteers,  vol.  xxxvi  a,  Bahawalpur,  p.  183. 

3  Manual  of  Titles  for  Oudh,  p.  78.     (Allahabad,  1889.) 


26o  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

brought  to  him  than  his  conscience  smote  him  and  he  sent 
for  her  husband.  Tilok  Chand  had  despaired  of  ever  seeing 
her  again,  and  in  gratitude  he  and  his  wife  embraced  the 
faith  "  which  taught  such  generous  purity/' 1  These  con- 
verted Rajputs  are  very  zealous  in  the  practice  of  their 
religion,  yet  often  betray  their  Hindu  origin  in  a  very  striking 
manner.  In  the  district  of  Bulandshahr,  for  example,  a 
large  Musalman  family,  which  is  known  as  the  Lalkhani 
Pathans,  still  (with  some  exceptions)  retains  its  old  Hindu 
titles  and  family  customs  of  marriage,  while  Hindu  branches 
of  the  same  clan  still  exist  side  by  side  with  it.2  In  the 
Mirzapur  district,  the  Gaharwar  Rajputs,  who  are  now 
Muslim,  still  retain  in  all  domestic  matters  Hindu  laws 
and  customs  and  prefix  a  Hindu  honorific  title  to  their 
Muhammadan  names.3 

Official  pressure  is  said  never  to  have  been  more  persist- 
ently brought  to  bear  upon  the  Hindus  than  in  the  reign  of 
Aurangzeb.  In  the  eastern  districts  of  the  Panjab,  there 
are  many  cases  in  which  the  ancestor  of  the  Musalman 
branch  of  the  village  community  is  said  to  have  changed  his 
religion  in  the  reign  of  this  zealot,  "  in  order  to  save  the  land 
of  the  village."  In  Gurgaon,  near  Dehli,  there  is  a  Hindu 
family  of  Banyas  who  still  bear  the  title  of  Shaykh  (which 
is  commonly  adopted  by  converted  Hindus),  because  one  of 
the  members  of  the  family,  whose  line  is  now  extinct,  became 
a  convert  in  order  to  save  the  family  property  from  confisca- 
tion.4 Many  Rajput  landowners,  in  the  Cawnpore  district, 
were  compelled  to  embrace  Islam  for  the  same  reason.5     In 

1  Gazetteer  of  the  Province  of  Oudh,  vol.  i.  p.  466. 

2  Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  iii.  part  ii.  p.  46. 

3  Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  xiv.  part  ii.  p.  119.  In  the  Cawnpore 
district,  the  Musalman  branch  of  the  Dikhit  family  observes  Muhammadan 
customs  at  births,  marriages,  and  deaths,  and,  though  they  cannot,  as  a 
rule,  recite  the  prayers  (namaz),  they  perform  the  orthodox  obeisances 
(sijdah).  But  at  the  same  time  they  worship  Chachak  Devi  to  avert 
small-pox,  and  keep  up  their  friendly  intercourse  with  their  old  caste 
brethren,  the  Thakurs,  in  domestic  occurrences,  and  are  generally  called 
by  common  Hindu  names.     (Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  vi.  p.  64.) 

*  Ibbetson,  p.  163. 

5  Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  vi.  p.  64.  Compare  also  id.  vol.  xiv. 
part  iii.  p.  47.  "Muhammadan  cultivators  are  not  numerous;  they  are 
usually  Nau-Muslims.  Most  of  them  assign  the  date  of  their  conversion 
to  the  reign  of  Aurangzeb,  and  represent  it  as  the  result  sometimes  of 
persecution  and  sometimes  as  made  to  enable  them  to  retain  their  rights 
when  unable  to  pay  revenue." 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         261 

other  cases  the  ancestor  is  said  to  have  been  carried  as  a 
prisoner  or  hostage  to  Dehli,  and  there  forcibly  circumcised 
and  converted.1  It  should  be  noted  that  the  only  authority 
for  these  forced  conversions  is  family  or  local  tradition,  and 
no  mention  of  such  (as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover) 
is  made  in  the  historical  accounts  of  Aurangzeb's  reign.2  It 
is  established  without  doubt  that  forced  conversions  have 
been  made  by  Muhammadan  rulers,  and  it  seems  probable 
that  Aurangzeb's  well-known  zeal  on  behalf  of  his  faith  has 
caused  many  families  of  Northern  India  (the  history  of  whose 
conversion  has  been  forgotten)  to  attribute  their  change  of 
faith  to  this,  the  most  easily  assignable  cause.  Similarly  in 
the  Deccan,  Aurangzeb  shares  with  Haydar  'AH  and  Tipii 
Sultan  (these  being  the  best  known  of  modern  Muhammadan 
rulers)  the  reputation  of  having  forcibly  converted  sundry 
families  and  sections  of  the  population,  whose  conversion 
undoubtedly  dates  from  a  much  earlier  period,  from  which 
no  historical  record  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case  has  come 
down.3 

Tipu.  Sultan  is  probably  the  Muhammadan  monarch  who 
most  systematically  engaged  in  the  work  of  forcible  conver- 
sion. In  1788  he  issued  the  following  proclamation  to  the 
people  of  Malabar  :  "  From  the  period  of  the  conquest  until 
this  day,  during  twenty-four  years,  you  have  been  a  turbu- 
lent and  refractory  people,  and  in  the  wars  waged  during 
your  rainy  season,  you  have  caused  numbers  of  our  warriors 
to  taste  the  draught  of  martyrdom.  Be  it  so.  What  is  past 
is  past.  Hereafter  you  must  proceed  in  an  opposite  manner, 
dwell  quietly  and  pay  your  dues  like  good  subjects ;  and  since 
it  is  the  practice  with  you  for  one  woman  to  associate  with 
ten  men,  and  you  leave  your  mothers  and  sisters  uncon- 
strained in  their  obscene  practices,  and  are  thence  all  born 
in  adultery,  and  are  more  shameless  in  your  connections 
than  the  beasts  of  the  field,  I  hereby  require  you  to  forsake 
these  sinful  practices  and  to  be  like  the  rest  of  mankind; 

1  Ibbetson,  p.  163. 

2  Indeed  Firishtah  distinctly  says  :  "  Zealous  for  the  faith  of  Mahommed, 
he  rewarded  proselytes  with  a  liberal  hand,  though  he  did  not  choose  to 
persecute  those  of  different  persuasions  in  matters  of  religion."  (The 
History  of  Hindostan,  translated  from  the  Persian,  by  Alexander  Dow, 
vol.  iii.  p.  361.)     (London,  1812.) 

3  The  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  xxii.  p.  222 ;  vol.  xxiii.  p.  282. 


262  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

and  if  you  are  disobedient  to  these  commands,  I  have  made 
repeated  vows  to  honour  the  whole  of  you  with  Islam  and 
to  march  all  the  chief  persons  to  the  seat  of  Government." 
This  proclamation  stirred  up  a  general  revolt  in  Malabar, 
and  early  in  1789  Tipu  Sultan  prepared  to  enforce  his 
proclamation  with  an  army  of  more  than  twenty  thousand 
men,  and  issued  general  orders  that  "  every  being  in  the 
district  without  distinction  should  be  honoured  with  Islam, 
that  the  houses  of  such  as  fled  to  avoid  that  honour  should 
be  burned,  that  they  should  be  traced  to  their  lurking  places, 
and  that  all  means  of  truth  and  falsehood,  force  or  fraud 
should  be  employed  to  effect  their  universal  conversion." 
Thousands  of  Hindus  were  accordingly  circumcised  and  made 
to  eat  beef;  but  by  the  end  of  1790  the  British  army  had 
destroyed  the  last  remnant  of  Tipu  Sultan's  power  in 
Malabar,  and  this  monarch  himself  perished  early  in  1799 
at  the  capture  of  Seringapatam.  Most  of  the  Brahmans 
and  Nayars  who  had  been  forcibly  converted,  subsequently 
disowned  their  new  religion.1 

How  little  was  effected  towards  the  spread  of  Islam  by 
violence  on  the  part  of  the  Muhammadan  rulers  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  even  in  the  centres  of  the  Muham- 
madan power,  such  as  Dehli  and  Agra,  the  Muhammadans 
in  modern  times  in  the  former  district  hardly  exceeded 
one-tenth,  and  in  the  latter  they  did  not  form  one-fourth  of 
the  population.2  A  remarkable  example  of  the  worthless- 
ness  of  forced  conversion  is  exhibited  in  the  case  of  Bodh 
Mai,  Raja  of  Majhauli,  in  the  district  of  Gorakhpur;  he  was 
arrested  by  Akbar  in  default  of  revenue,  carried  to  Dehli, 
and  there  converted  to  Islam,  receiving  the  name  of  Muham- 
mad Salim.  But  on  his  return  his  wife  refused  to  let  him 
into  the  ancestral  castle,  and,  as  apparently  she  had  the 
sympathy  of  his  subjects  on  her  side,  she  governed  his 
territories  during  the  minority  of  his  son  Bhawani  Mai,  so 
that  the  Hindu  succession  remained  undisturbed.3  Until 
recently  there  were  some  strange  survivals  of  a  similarly 
futile  false  conversion,  noticeable  in  certain  customs  of  a 

1  Innes,  pp.  72-3,  190. 

2  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter  :  The  Religions  of  India.     (The  Times,  February 
25th,  1888.) 

3  Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  vi.  p.  518. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         263 

Hindu  sect  called  the  Bishnois,  the  principal  tenet  of  whose 
faith  is  the  renunciation  of  all  Hindu  deities,  except  Visnu. 
They  used  recently  to  bury  their  dead,  instead  of  burning 
them,  to  adopt  Ghulam  Muhammad  and  other  Muhammadan 
names,  and  use  the  Muslim  form  of  salutation.  They  ex- 
plained their  adoption  of  these  Muhammadan  customs  by 
saying  that  having  once  slain  a  Qadi,  who  had  interfered 
with  their  rite  of  widow-burning,  they  had  compounded  for 
the  offence  by  embracing  Islam.  They  have  now,  however, 
renounced  these  practices  in  favour  of  Hindu  customs.1 

But  though  some  Muhammadan  rulers  may  have  been 
more  successful  in  forcing  an  acceptance  of  Islam  on  certain 
of  their  Hindu  subjects  than  in  the  last-mentioned  cases, 
and  whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  the  assertion  2  that 
"it  is  impossible  even  to  approach  the  religious  side  of  the 
Mahomedan  position  in  India  without  surveying  first  its 
political  aspect,"  we  undoubtedly  find  that  Islam  has  gained 
its  greatest  and  most  lasting  missionary  triumphs  in  times 
and  places  in  which  its  political  power  has  been  weakest, 
as  in  Southern  India  and  Eastern  Bengal.  Of  such  mis- 
sionary movements  it  is  now  proposed  to  essay  some  account, 
commencing  with  Southern  India  and  the  Deccan,  then 
after  reviewing  the  history  of  Sind,  Cutch  and  Gujarat, 
passing  to  Bengal,  and  finally  noticing  some  missionaries 
whose  work  lay  outside  the  above  geographical  limits.  Of 
several  of  the  missionaries  to  be  referred  to,  little  is  recorded 
beyond  their  names  and  the  sphere  of  their  labours ;  accord- 
ingly, in  view  of  the  general  dearth  of  such  missionary  annals, 
any  available  details  have  been  given  at  length. 

The  first  advent  of  Islam  in  South  India  dates  as  far  back 
as  the  eighth  century,  when  a  band  of  refugees,  to  whom 
the  Mappillas  trace  their  descent,  came  from  'Iraq  and 
settled  in  the  country.3  The  trade  in  spices,  ivory,  gems, 
etc.,  between  India  and  Europe,  which  for  many  hundred 
years  was  conducted  by  the  Arabs  and  Persians,  caused  a 
continual  stream  of  Muhammadan  influence  to  flow  in  upon 
the  west  coast  of  Southern  India.     From  this  constant  influx 

1  Gazetteer  of  the  N.W.P.,  vol.  v.  part  i.  pp.  302-3. 

2  Sir  Alfred  C.  Lyall  :  Asiatic  Studies,  p.  236. 

3  A  tomb  in  the  cemetery  of  Pantalayini  Kollam  bears  an  inscription 
with  the  date  a.h.  166.     (Innes,  p.  436.) 


264  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

of  foreigners  there  resulted  a  mixed  population,  half  Hindu 
and  half  Arab  or  Persian,  in  the  trading  centres  along  the 
coast.  Very  friendly  relations  appear  to  have  existed  be- 
tween these  Muslim  traders  and  the  Hindu  rulers,  who 
extended  to  them  their  protection  and  patronage  in  con- 
sideration of  the  increased  commercial  activity  and  con- 
sequent prosperity  of  the  country,  that  resulted  from  their 
presence  in  it,1  and  no  obstacles  were  placed  in  the  way  of 
proselytising,  the  native  converts  receiving  the  same  con- 
sideration and  respect  as  the  foreign  merchants,  even  though 
before  their  conversion  they  had  belonged  to  the  lowest 
grades  of  society.2 

The  traditionary  account  of  the  introduction  of  Islam  into 
Malabar,  as  given  by  a  Muhammadan  historian  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  represents  the  first  missionaries  to  have 
been  a  party  of  pilgrims  on  their  way  to  visit  the  foot-print 
of  Adam  in  Ceylon ;  on  their  arrival  at  Cranganore  the  Raja 
sent  for  them  and  the  leader  of  the  party,  Shaykh  Sharaf 
b.  Malik,  who  was  accompanied  by  his  brother,  Malik  b. 
Dinar,  and  his  nephew,  Malik  b.  Habib,  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  expounding  to  him  the  faith  of  Islam  and  the 
mission  of  Muhammad,  "  and  God  caused  the  truth  of  the 
Prophet's  teaching  to  enter  into  the  king's  heart  and  he 
believed  therein ;  and  his  heart  became  filled  with  love  for 
the  Prophet  and  he  bade  the  Shaykh  and  companions  come 
back  to  him  again  on  their  return  from  their  pilgrimage  to 
Adam's  foot-print."  3  On  the  return  of  the  pilgrims  from 
Ceylon,  the  king  secretly  departed  with  them  in  a  ship  bound 
for  the  coast  of  Arabia,  leaving  his  kingdom  in  the  hand 
of  viceroys.  Here  he  remained  for  some  time,  and  was 
just  about  to  return  to  his  own  country,  with  the  intention 
of  erecting  mosques  there  and  spreading  the  faith  of  Islam, 
when  he  fell  sick  and  died.  On  his  death-bed  he  solemnly 
enjoined  on  his  companions  not  to  abandon  their  proposed 
missionary  journey  to  Malabar,  and  to  assist  them  in  their 
labours,  he  gave  them  letters  of  recommendation  to  his 
viceroys,  at  the  same  time  bidding  them  conceal  the  fact 
of  his  death.     Armed  with   these  letters,  Sharaf  b.  Malik 

1  Zayn  al-DIn,  pp.  34-5.  2  Id.  p.  36  (init.). 

3  Id.  p.  21. 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   INDIA         265 

and  his  companions  sailed  for  Cranganore,  where  the  king's 
letter  secured  for  them  a  kindly  welcome  and  a  grant  of 
land,  on  which  they  built  a  mosque.  Malik  b.  Dinar  decided 
to  settle  there,  but  Malik  b.  Habib  set  out  on  a  missionary 
tour  with  the  object  of  building  mosques  throughout  Malabar. 
"  So  Malik  b.  Habib  set  out  for  Quilon  with  his  worldly 
goods  and  his  wife  and  some  of  his  children,  and  he  built 
a  mosque  there ;  then  leaving  his  wife  there,  he  went  on  to 
Hill  Marawi,1  where  he  built  a  mosque  "  ;  and  so  the  narrative 
continues,  giving  a  list  of  seven  other  places  at  which  the 
missionary  erected  mosques,  finally  returning  to  Cranganore. 
Later  on,  he  visited  all  these  places  again  to  pray  in  the 
mosque  at  each  of  them,  and  came  back  "  praising  and 
giving  thanks  to  God  for  the  manifestation  of  the  faith  of 
Islam  in  a  land  filled  with  unbelievers."  2 

In  spite  of  the  circumstantial  character  of  this  narrative, 
there  is  no  evidence  of  its  historicity.  Popular  belief  puts 
the  date  of  the  events  recorded  as  far  back  as  the  lifetime 
of  the  Prophet ;  with  a  mild  scepticism  Zayn  al-Din  thought 
that  they  could  not  have  been  earlier  than  the  third  century 
of  the  Hi j rah;  3  but  there  is  no  more  authority  for  the  one 
date  than  for  the  other,  or  for  the  common  Mappilla  tradition 
of  the  existence  of  the  tomb  of  a  Hindu  king  at  Zafar,  on  the 
coast  of  Arabia,  bearing  the  inscription,  "  'Abd  al-Rahman 
al-Samiri,  arrived  a.h.  212,  died  a.h.  216  " ; 4  and  the  mosque 
at  Madayi,  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Malik  b.  Dinar, 
bears  an  inscription  commemorating  its  erection  in  A.D.1124.5 

But  the  legend  certainly  bears  witness  to  the  peaceful 
character  of  the  proselytising  influences  that  were  at  work 
on  the  Malabar  coast  for  centuries.  The  agents  in  this  work 
were  chiefly  Arab  merchants,  but  Ibn  Batiitah.  makes 
mention  of  several  professed  theologians  from  Arabia  and 
elsewhere,  whom  he  met  in  various  towns  on  the  Malabar 
coast.6  The  Zamorin  of  Calicut,  who  was  one  of  the  chief 
patrons  of  Arab  trade,  is  said  to  have  encouraged  conversion 
to  Islam,  in  order  to  man  the  Arab  ships  on  which  he  depended 
for  his  aggrandisement,  and  to  have  ordered  that  in  every 

1  The  modern  Madayi.  2  Zayn  al-Din,  pp.  23-4. 

3  Id.  p.  25.  4  Innes,  p.  41. 

5  Id.  p.  398.  6  Ibn  Batiitah,  tome  iv.  pp.  82,  88,  etc. 


266  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

family  of  fishermen  in  his  dominion  one  or  more  of  the  male 
members  should  be  brought  up  as  Muhammadans.1  At  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Mappillas  were  esti- 
mated to  have  formed  one-fifth  of  the  population  of  Malabar, 
spoke  the  same  language  as  the  Hindus,  and  were  only 
distinguished  from  them  by  their  long  beards  and  peculiar 
head-dress.  But  for  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese,  the 
whole  of  this  coast  would  have  become  Muhammadan, 
because  of  the  frequent  conversions  that  took  place  and 
the  powerful  influence  exercised  by  the  Muslim  merchants 
from  other  parts  of  India,  such  as  Gujarat  and  the  Deccan, 
and  from  Arabia  and  Persia.2 

But  there  would  appear  to  be  no  record  of  the  individuals 
who  took  part  in  the  propaganda,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
historian  'Abd  al-Razzaq,  who  has  himself  left  an  account 
of  his  unsuccessful  mission  to  the  court  of  the  Zamorin  of 
Calicut.  He  was  sent  on  this  mission  in  the  year  1441  by 
the  Timurid  Shah  Rukh  Bahadur,  in  response  to  an  appeal 
made  by  an  ambassador  who  had  been  sent  by  the  Zamorin 
of  Calicut  to  this  monarch.  The  ambassador  was  himself  a 
Musalman  and  represented  to  the  Sultan  how  excellent  and 
meritorious  an  action  it  would  be  to  send  a  special  envoy 
to  the  Zamorin,  "  to  invite  him  to  accept  Islam  in  accordance 
with  the  injunction  '  Summon  thou  to  the  ways  of  thy 
Lord  with  wisdom  and  with  kindly  warning/  3  and  open  the 
bolt  of  darkness  and  error  that  locked  his  benighted  heart, 
and  let  the  splendour  of  the  light  of  the  faith  and  the  bright- 
ness of  the  sun  of  knowledge  shine  into  the  window  of  his 
soul."     'Abd  al-Razzaq  was  chosen  for  this  task  and  after 

1  Innes,  p.  190. 

2  Oboardo  Barbosa,  p.  310. 

Similarly  it  has  been  conjectured  that  but  for  the  arrival  of  the  Portu- 
guese, Ceylon  might  have  become  a  Muhammadan  kingdom.  For  before 
the  Portuguese  armaments  appeared  in  the  Indian  seas,  the  Arab  merchants 
were  undisputed  masters  of  the  trade  of  this  island  (where  indeed  they  had 
formed  commercial  establishments  centuries  before  the  birth  of  the  Prophet) , 
and  were  to  be  found  in  every  sea-port  and  city,  while  the  facilities  for 
commerce  attracted  large  numbers  of  fresh  arrivals  from  their  settlements 
in  Malabar.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  Muslim  traders  intermarried  with  the 
natives  of  the  country  and  spread  their  religion  along  the  coast.  But  no 
very  active  proselytising  movement  would  seem  to  have  been  carried  on, 
or  else  the  Singhalese  showed  themselves  unwilling  to  embrace  Islam,  as 
the  Muhammadans  of  Ceylon  at  the  present  day  appear  mostly  to  be  of 
Arab  descent.  (Sir  James  Emerson  Tennent :  Ceylon,  vol.  i.  pp.  631-3.) 
(5th  ed.,  London,  i860.)  3  Qur'an,  xvi.  126. 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   INDIA         267 

an  adventurous  journey  reached  Calicut,  but  appears  to 
have  met  with  a  cold  reception,  and  after  remaining  there  for 
about  six  months  abandoned  his  original  purposes  and  made 
his  way  back  to  Khurasan,  which  he  reached  after  an 
absence  of  three  years.1 

Another  community  of  Musalmans  in  Southern  India,  the 
Ravuttans,2  ascribe  their  conversion  to  the  preaching  of 
missionaries  whose  tombs  are  held  in  veneration  by  them 
to  the  present  day.  The  most  famous  of  these  was  Sayyid 
Nathar  Shah  3  (a.d.  969-1039)  who  after  many  wanderings 
in  Arabia,  Persia  and  Northern  India,  settled  down  in 
Trichinopoly,  where  he  spent  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life  in  prayer  and  works  of  charity,  and  converted  a  large 
number  of  Hindus  to  the  faith  of  Islam;  his  tomb  is  much 
resorted  to  as  a  place  of  pilgrimage  and  the  Muhammadans 
re-named  Trichinopoly  Natharnagar,  after  the  name  of  their 
saint.4  Sayyid  Ibrahim  Shahid  (said  to  have  been  born 
about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century),  whose  tomb  is 
at  Ervadi,  was  a  militant  hero  who  led  an  expedition  into 
the  Pandyan  kingdom,  occupied  the  country  for  about 
twelve  years,  but  was  at  length  slain ;  his  son's  life  was, 
however,  spared  in  consideration  of  the  beneficent  rule  of 
his  father,  and  a  grant  of  land  given  to  him,  which  his 
descendants  enjoy  to  the  present  day.  The  latest  of  these 
saints,  Shah  al-Hamid  (1532-1600),  was  born  at  Manikpur 
in  Northern  India,  and  spent  most  of  his  life  in  visiting  the 
holy  shrines  of  Islam  and  in  missionary  tours  chiefly 
throughout  Southern  India ;  he  finally  settled  in  Nagore, 
where  the  descendants  of  his  adopted  son  are  still  in  charge 
of  his  tomb.5 

Another  group  of  Muhammadans  in  Southern  India,  the 
Dudekulas,  who  live  by  cotton  cleaning  (as  their  name 
denotes)  and  by  weaving  coarse  fabrics,  attribute  their 
conversion  to  Baba  Fakhr  al-Din,  whose  tomb  they  revere 

1  'Abd  al-Razzaq  :  Matla'  al-sa'dayn,  fol.  173. 

2  They  are  found  chiefly  in  the  Tamil-speaking  districts  of  Madura, 
Tinnevelly,  Coimbatore,  North  Arcot  and  the  Nilgiris. 

3  The  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India  (vol.  xxiv.  p.  47)  spells  his  name  Nadir 
Shah ;  Qadir  Husayn  Khan  calls  him  Nathad  Vali. 

4  Madras  District  Gazetteers.  Trichinopoly,  vol.  i.  p.  338.  (Madras, 
I9°7-)   Qadir  Husayn  Khan  :  South  Indian  Musalmans,  p.  36.   (Madras,  1910.) 

6  Qadir  Husayn  Khan,  pp.  36-8. 


268  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

at  Penukonda.  Legend  says  that  he  was  originally  a  king 
of  Sistan,  who  abdicated  his  throne  in  favour  of  his  brother 
and  became  a  religious  mendicant.  After  making  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca  and  Medina,  he  was  bidden  by  the 
Prophet  in  a  dream  to  go  to  India ;  here  he  met  Nathar  Shah, 
of  Trichinopoly,  and  became  his  disciple  and  was  sent  by  him 
in  company  with  200  religious  mendicants  on  a  proselytising 
mission.  The  legend  goes  on  to  say  that  they  finally  settled 
at  Penukonda  in  the  vicinity  of  a  Hindu  temple,  where  their 
presence  was  unwelcome  to  the  Raja  of  the  place,  but 
instead  of  appealing  to  force  he  applied  several  tests  to 
discover  whether  the  Muhammadan  saint  or  his  own  priest 
was  the  better  qualified  by  sanctity  to  possess  the  temple. 
As  a  final  test,  he  had  them  both  tied  up  in  sacks  filled 
with  lime  and  thrown  into  tanks.  The  Hindu  priest  never 
re-appeared,  but  Baba  Fakhr  al-Din  asserted  the  superiority 
of  his  faith  by  being  miraculously  transported  to  a  hill 
outside  the  town.  The  Raja  hereupon  became  a  Musalman, 
and  his  example  was  followed  by  a  large  number  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  the  temple  was 
turned  into  a  mosque.1 

The  history  of  Islam  in  Southern  India  by  no  means 
always  continued  to  be  of  so  peaceful  a  character,  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  the  forcible  conversions  of  the  Hindus 
and  others  to  Islam  which  were  perpetrated  when  the 
Muhammadan  power  became  paramount  under  Haydar 
'AH  (1767-1782)  and  Tipu  Sultan  (1782-1799),  can  be 
paralleled  in  the  earlier  history  of  this  part  of  India. 
However  this  may  be,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
constant  conversions  by  peaceful  methods  were  made  to 
Islam  from  among  the  lower  castes,2  as  is  the  case  at  the 
present  day  when  accessions  to  Islam  from  time  to  time  occur 
from  among  the  Tiyans,  who  are  said  to  form  one  of  the 
most  progressive  communities  in  India,  the  Mukkuvans  or 
fisherman  caste,  as  well  as  from  the  Cherumans  or  agricul- 
tural labourers,  and  other  serf  castes,  to  whom  Islam  brings 
deliverance  from  the  disabilities  attaching  to  the  outcasts 

1  Qadir   Husayn  Khan,  op.  cit.  pp.  39-42.     Madras  District  Gazetteers. 
Anantapur,  vol.  i.  pp.  193-4.     (Madras,  1905.) 

2  Zayn  al-Din,  pp.  33  (1.  4),  36  (1.  1). 


THE   SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   INDIA         269 

of  the  Hindu  social  system ;  occasionally,  also,  converts  are 
drawn  from  among  the  Nayars  and  the  native  Christians. 
In  Ponnani,  the  residence  of  the  spiritual  head  of  the 
majority  of  the  Muhammadans  of  Malabar,  there  is  an 
association  entitled  Minnat  al-Islam  Sabha,  where  converts 
are  instructed  in  the  tenets  of  their  new  faith  and  material 
assistance  rendered  to  those  under  instruction ;  the  average 
number  of  converts  received  in  this  institution  in  the  course 
of  the  first  three  years  of  the  twentieth  century,  was  750. 1 
So  numerous  have  these  conversions  from  Hinduism  been, 
that  the  tendency  of  the  Muhammadans  of  the  west  as  well 
as  the  east  coast  of  Southern  India  has  been  to  reversion  to 
the  Hindu  or  aboriginal  type,  and,  except  in  the  case  of  some 
of  the  nobler  families,  they  now  in  great  part  present  all  the 
characteristics  of  an  aboriginal  people,  with  very  little  of  the 
original  foreign  blood  in  them.2  In  the  western  coast  dis- 
tricts the  tyranny  of  caste  intolerance  is  peculiarly  oppres- 
sive ;  to  give  but  one  instance,  in  Travancore  certain  of  the 
lower  castes  may  not  come  nearer  than  seventy-four  paces 
to  a  Brahman,  and  have  to  make  a  grunting  noise  as  they 
pass  along  the  road,  in  order  to  give  warning  of  their  ap- 
proach. Similar  instances  might  be  abundantly  multiplied. 
What  wonder,  then,  that  the  Musalman  population  is  fast 
increasing  through  conversion  from  these  lower  castes,  who 
thereby  free  themselves  from  such  degrading  oppression,  and 
raise  themselves  and  their  descendants  in  the  social  scale  ? 

In  fact  the  Mappilas  on  the  west  coast  are  said  to  be 
increasing  so  considerably  through  accessions  from  the 
lower  classes  of  Hindus,  as  to  render  it  possible  that  in  a 
few  years  the  whole  of  the  lower  races  of  the  west  coast  may 
become  Muhammadans.3 

It  was  most  probably  from  Malabar  that  Islam  crossed 
over  to  the  Laccadive  and  Maldive  Islands,  the  population 
of  which  is  now  entirely  Muslim.  The  inhabitants  of  these 
islands  owed  their  conversion  to  the  Arab  and  Persian 
merchants,    who   established   themselves   in   the    country, 

1  Innes,  p.  190.      Census  of  India,  191 1.     Vol.  xii.  Part.  I.  p.  54. 

2  Report  on  the  Census  of  the  Madras  Presidency,  1871,  by  W.  R.  Cornish, 
pp.  71,  72,  109.     (Madras,  1874.) 

3  Report  of  the  Second  Decennial  Missionary  Conference  held  at  Calcutta 
1882-3  (pp.  228,  233,  248).     (Calcutta,  1883.) 


270  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

intermarrying  with  the  natives,  and  thus  smoothing  the  way 
for  the  work  of  active  proselytism.  The  date  of  the  con- 
version of  the  first  Muhammadan  Sultan  of  the  Maldive 
Islands,  Ahmad  Shanurazah,1  has  been  conjectured  to  have 
occurred  about  a.d.  1200,  but  it  is  very  possible  that  the 
Muhammadan  merchants  had  introduced  their  religion  into 
the  island  as  much  as  three  centuries  before,  and  the  process 
of  conversion  must  undoubtedly  have  been  a  gradual  one.2 
No  details,  however,  have  come  down  to  us. 

At  Male,  the  seat  of  government,  is  found  the  tomb  of 
Shaykh  Yusuf  Shams  al-DIn,  a  native  of  Tabriz,  in  Persia, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  a  successful  missionary  of  Islam  in 
these  islands.  His  tomb  is  still  held  in  great  veneration, 
and  always  kept  in  good  repair,  and  in  the  same  part  of  the 
island  are  buried  some  of  his  countrymen  who  came  in  search 
of  him,  and  remained  in  the  Maldives  until  their  death.3 

The  introduction  of  Islam  into  the  neighbouring  Laccadive 
Islands  is  attributed  to  an  Arab  preacher,  known  to  the 
islanders  by  the  name  of  Mumba  Mulyaka ;  his  tomb  is  still 
shown  at  Androth  and  as  the  present  qadi  of  that  place 
claims  to  be  twenty-sixth  in  descent  from  him,  he  probably 
reached  these  islands  some  time  in  the  twelfth  century.4 

The  Deccan  also  was  the  scene  of  the  successful  labours  of 
many  Muslim  missionaries.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out 
that  from  very  early  times  Arab  traders  had  visited  the 
towns  on  the  west  coast ;  in  the  tenth  century  we  are  told 
that  the  Arabs  were  settled  in  large  numbers  in  the  towns 
of  the  Konkan,  having  intermarried  with  the  women  of  the 
country  and  living  under  their  own  laws  and  religion.5 
Under  the  Muhammadan  dynasties  of  the  Bahmanid  (1347- 
1490)  and  Bijapur  (1489-1686)  kings,  a  fresh  impulse  was 
given  to  Arab  immigration,  and  with  the  trader  and  the 
soldier  of  fortune  came  the  missionaries  seeking  to  make 

1  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  p.  128.  Ibn  Batutah  resided  in  the  Maldive 
Islands  during  the  years  1343-4  and  married  "  the  daughter  of  a  Vizier 
who  was  grandson  of  the  Sultan  Da'ud,  who  was  a  grandson  of  the  Sultan 
Ahmad  Shanurazah  "  (tome  iv.  p.  154) ;  from  this  statement  the  date 
a.d.  1200  has  been  conjectured. 

2  H.  C.  P.  Bell :  The  Maldive  Islands,  pp.  23-5,  57-8,  71.    (Colombo,  1883.) 

3  Memoir  on  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Maldive  Islands.  By  J.  A.  Young 
and  W.  Christopher.  (Transactions  of  the  Bombay  Geographical  Society 
from  1836  to  1838,  p.  74.     Bombay,  1844.) 

1   Innes,  pp.  485,  492.  5  Mas'iidi,  tome  ii.  pp.  85-6. 


THE   SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   INDIA         271 

spiritual  conquests  in  the  cause  of  Islam,  and  win  over  the 
unbelieving  people  of  the  country  by  their  preaching  and 
example,  for  of  forcible  conversions  we  have  no  record  under 
the  early  Deccan  dynasties,  whose  rule  was  characterised  by 
a  striking  toleration.1 

One  of  these  Arab  preachers,  Pir  Mahabir  Khamdayat, 
came  as  a  missionary  to  the  Deccan  as  early  as  a.d.  1304, 
and  among  the  cultivating  classes  of  Bljapur  are  to  be  found 
descendants  of  the  Jains  who  were  converted  by  him.2 
About  the  close  of  the  same  century  a  celebrated  saint  of 
Gulbarga,  Sayyid  Muhammad  GTsiidaraz,3  converted  a 
number  of  Hindus  of  the  Poona  district,  and  twenty  years 
later  his  labours  were  crowned  with  a  like  success  in  Belgaum.4 
At  Dahanu  still  reside  the  descendants  of  a  relative  of  one 
of  the  greatest  saints  of  Islam,  Sayyid  'Abd  al-Qadir  Jilani 
of  Baghdad :  he  came  to  Western  India  about  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  after  making  many  converts  in  the  Konkan, 
died  and  was  buried  at  Dahanu.5  In  the  district  of  Dharwar, 
there  are  large  numbers  of  weavers  whose  ancestors  were 
converted  by  Hashim  Pir  Gujarati,  the  religious  teacher  of 
the  Bijapur  king,  Ibrahim  'Adil  Shah  II,  about  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  These  men  still  regard  the  saint 
with  special  reverence  and  pay  great  respect  to  his  descen- 
dants.6 The  descendants  of  another  saint,  Shah  Muham- 
mad Sadiq  Sarmast  Husayni,  are  still  found  in  Nasik;  he 
is  said  to  have  been  the  most  successful  of  Muhammadan 
missionaries ;  having  come  from  Medina  in  1568,  he  travelled 
over  the  greater  part  of  Western  India  and  finally  settled 
at  Nasik — in  which  district  another  very  successful  Muslim 
missionary,  Khwajah  Khunmir  Husayni,  had  begun  to 
labour  about  fifty  years  before.7  Two  other  Arab  mis- 
sionaries may  be  mentioned,  the  scene  of  whose  proselytising 
efforts  was  laid  in  the  district  of  Belgaum,  namely  Sayyid 
Muhammad  b.  Sayyid  'AH  and  Sayyid  'Umar  'Aydriis 
Basheban.8 

1  The  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  x.  p    132;  vol.  xvi.  p.  75. 

2  Id.  vol.  xxiii.  p.  282. 

3  Sometimes  called  Sayyid  Makhdum  Gisudaraz. 

4  The  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  xviii.  p.  501 ;  vol.  xxi.  pp.  218,  223. 

5  Id.  vol.  xiii.  part  i.  p.  231.  6  Id.  vol.  xxii.  p.  242. 
7  Id.  vol.  xvi.  pp.  75-6.  8  Id.  vol.  xxi.  p.  203. 


272  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

Another  missionary  movement  may  be  said  roughly  to 
centre  round  the  city  of  Multan.1  This  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Arab  conquest  was  one  of  the  outposts  of  Islam, 
when  Muhammad  b.  Qasim  had  established  Muhammadan 
supremacy  over  Sind  (a.d.  714).  During  the  three  centuries 
of  Arab  rule  there  were  naturally  many  accessions  to  the 
faith  of  the  conquerors.  Several  Sindian  princes  responded 
to  the  invitation  of  the  Caliph  'Umar  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz  to 
embrace  Islam.2  The  people  of  Sawandari — who  submitted 
to  Muhammad  b.  Qasim  and  had  peace  granted  to  them  on 
the  condition  that  they  would  entertain  the  Musalmans  and 
furnish  guides — are  spoken  of  by  al-Baladhuri  (writing  about 
a  hundred  years  later)  as  professing  Islam  in  his  time; 
and  the  despatches  of  the  conqueror  frequently  refer  to  the 
conversion  of  the  unbelievers. 

That  these  conversions  were  in  the  main  voluntary,  may 
be  judged  from  the  toleration  that  the  Arabs,  after  the  first 
violence  of  their  onslaught,  showed  towards  their  idolatrous 
subjects.  The  people  of  Brahmanabad,  for  example,  whose 
city  had  been  taken  by  storm,  were  allowed  to  repair  their 
temple,  which  was  a  means  of  livelihood  to  the  Brahmans, 
and  nobody  was  to  be  forbidden  or  prevented  from  following 
his  own  religion,3  and  generally,  where  submission  was  made, 
quarter  was  readily  given,  and  the  people  were  permitted 
the  exercise  of  their  own  creeds  and  laws. 

During  the  troubles  that  befell  the  caliphate  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  ninth  century,  Sind,  neglected  by  the  central 
government,  came  to  be  divided  among  several  petty 
princes,  the  most  powerful  of  whom  were  the  Amirs  of 
Multan  and  Mansura.  Such  disunion  naturally  weakened 
the  political  power  of  the  Musalmans,  which  had  in  fact 
begun  to  decline  earlier  in  the  century.  For  in  the  reign 
of  al-Mu'tasim  (a.d.  833-842),  the  Indians  of  Sindan4 
declared  themselves  independent,  but  they  spared  the 
mosque,  in  which  the  Musalmans  were  allowed  to  perform 
their  devotions  undisturbed.5    The  Muhammadans  of  Multan 

1  At  the  time  of  the  Arab  conquest  the  dominions  of  the  Hindu  ruler  of 
Sind  extended  as  far  north  as  this  city,  which  is  now  no  longer  included  in 
this  province.         2  Baladhuri,  p.  441  (fin.)         3  Elliot,  vol.  i.  pp.  185-6. 

4  Probably  the  Sindan  in  Abrasa,  the  southern  district  of  Cutch. 

6  Baladhuri.  p.  446. 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN   INDIA         273 

succeeded  in  maintaining  their  political  independence,  and 
kept  themselves  from  being  conquered  by  the  neighbouring 
Hindu  princes,  by  threatening,  if  attacked,  to  destroy  an 
idol  which  was  held  in  great  veneration  by  the  Hindus  and 
was  visited  by  pilgrims  from  the  most  distant  parts.1  But 
in  the  hour  of  its  political  decay,  Islam  was  still  achieving 
missionary  successes.  Al-Baladhuri 2  tells  the  following  story 
of  the  conversion  of  a  king  of  'Usayfan,  a  country  between 
Kashmir  and  Multan  and  Kabul.  The  people  of  this 
country  worshipped  an  idol  for  which  they  had  built  a 
temple.  The  son  of  the  king  fell  sick,  and  he  desired  the 
priests  of  the  temple  to  pray  to  the  idol  for  the  recovery  of 
his  son.  They  retired  for  a  short  time,  and  then  returned 
saying  :  "  We  have  prayed  and  our  supplications  have  been 
accepted."  But  no  long  time  passed  before  the  youth  died. 
Then  the  king  attacked  the  temple,  destroyed  and  broke  in 
pieces  the  idol,  and  slew  the  priests.  He  afterwards  invited 
a  party  of  Muhammadan  traders,  who  made  known  to  him 
the  unity  of  God;  whereupon  he  believed  in  the  unity  and 
became  a  Muslim.  A  similar  missionary  influence  was 
doubtless  exercised  by  the  numerous  communities  of 
Muslim  merchants  who  carried  their  religion  with  them  into 
the  infidel  cities  of  Hindustan.  Arab  geographers  of  the 
tenth  and  twelfth  centuries  mention  the  names  of  many 
such  cities,  both  on  the  coast  and  inland,  where  the  Musal- 
mans  built  their  mosques,  and  were  safe  under  the  protection 
of  the  native  princes,  who  even  granted  them  the  privilege 
of  living  under  their  own  laws.3  The  Arab  merchants  at  this 
time  formed  the  medium  of  commercial  communication 
between  Sind  and  the  neighbouring  countries  of  India  and 
the  outside  world.  They  brought  the  produce  of  China  and 
Ceylon  to  the  sea-ports  of  Sind  and  from  there  conveyed 
them  by  way  of  Multan  to  Turkistan  and  Khurasan.4 

It  would  be  strange  if  these  traders,  scattered  about  in 
the  cities  of  the  unbelievers,  failed  to  exhibit  the  same 
proselytising  zeal  as  we  find  in  the  Muhammadan  trader 
elsewhere.     To  the  influence  of  such  trading  communities 

1  Istakhri,  pp.  173-4.  2  Baladhuri,  p.  446. 

*  Istakhri,  loc.  cit.      Ibn  Hawqal,  p.  230  sq.  IdiisI    (Geographie 

d'Edrisi,  traduite  par  P.  A.  Jaubert,  vol.  i.  p.  175  sqq.). 
4  Mas'udi,  vol.  i.  p.  207. 
T 


274  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

was  most  probably  due  the  conversion  of  the  Sammas,  who 
ruled  over  Sind  from  A.D.  1351  to  1521.  While  the  reign  of 
Nanda  b.  Babiniyyah  of  this  dynasty  is  specially  mentioned 
as  one  of  such  "  peace  and  security,  that  never  was  this 
prince  called  upon  to  ride  forth  to  battle,  and  never  did 
a  foe  take  the  field  against  him,"  x  it  is  at  the  same  time 
described  as  being  "  remarkable  for  its  justice  and  an 
increase  of  Islam."  This  increase  could  thus  only  have 
been  brought  about  by  peaceful  missionary  methods.  One 
of  the  most  famous  of  these  missionaries  was  the  celebrated 
saint,  Sayyid  Ytisuf  al-DIn,  a  descendant  of  'Abd  al-Qadir 
Jilani,  who  was  bidden  in  a  dream  to  leave  Baghdad  for 
India  and  convert  its  inhabitants  to  Islam.  He  came  to 
Sind  in  1422  and  after  labouring  there  for  ten  years,  he 
succeeded  in  winning  over  to  Islam  700  families  of  the 
Lohana  caste,  who  followed  the  example  of  two  of  their 
number,  by  name  Sundarji  and  Hansraj ;  these  men  em- 
braced Islam,  after  seeing  some  miracles  performed  by  the 
saint,  and  on  their  conversion  received  the  names  of  Adamji 
and  Taj  Muhammad  respectively.  Under  the  leadership  of 
the  grandson  of  the  former,  these  people  afterwards  migrated 
to  Cutch,  where  their  numbers  were  increased  by  converts 
from  among  the  Cutch  Lohanas.2 

Sind  was  also  the  scene  of  the  labours  of  Pir  Sadr 
al-DIn,  an  Isma'ili  missionary,  who  was  head  of  the 
Khojah  sect  about  the  year  1430.  In  accordance  with 
the  principles  of  accommodation  practised  by  this  sect, 
he  took  a  Hindu  name  and  made  certain  concessions  to 
the  religious  beliefs  of  the  Hindus  whose  conversion  he 
sought  to  achieve,  and  introduced  among  them  a  book 
entitled  Dasavatar  in  which  'AH  was  made  out  to  be  the 
tenth  Avatar  or  incarnation  of  Visnu;  this  book  has  been 
from  the  beginning  the  accepted  scripture  of  the  Khojah 
sect,  and  it  is  always  read  by  the  bedside  of  the  dying  and 
periodically  at  many  festivals;  it  assumes  the  nine  incar- 
nations of  Visnu  to  be  true  as  far  as  they  go,  but  to  fall  short 
of  the  perfect  truth,  and  supplements  this  imperfect  Vaisnav 
system  by  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Isma'ilians,  the  incar- 
nation and  coming  manifestation  of  'All.     Further,  he  made 

1  Elliot,  vol.  i.  p.  273.  8  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  i.  p.  93. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         275 

out  Brahma  to  be  Muhammad,  Visnu  to  be  'All  and  Adam 
Siva.  The  first  of  Pir  Sadr  al-Dm's  converts  were  won  in 
the  villages  and  towns  of  Upper  Sind  :  he  preached  also  in 
Cutch  and  from  these  parts  the  doctrines  of  this  sect  spread 
southwards  through  Gujarat  to  Bombay;  and  at  the  present 
day  Khojah  communities  are  to  be  found  in  almost  all  the 
large  trading  towns  of  Western  India  and  on  the  seaboard 
of  the  Indian  Ocean.1 

Pir  Sadr  al-DIn  was  not  however  the  first  of  the  Isma'ilian 
missionaries  who  came  into  India.  He  was  preceded  by 
'Abd  Allah,  a  missionary  sent  from  Yaman  about  1067; 
he  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  learning,  and  is 
credited  with  the  performance  of  many  miracles,  whereby 
he  convinced  a  large  number  of  Hindus  of  the  truth 
of  his  religion.2  The  second  Isma'ili  missionary,  Nur 
al-DIn,  generally  known  by  the  Hindu  name  he  adopted, 
Nur  Satagar,  was  sent  into  India  from  Alamut,  the 
stronghold  of  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Isma/ilis,  and 
reached  Gujarat  in  the  reign  of  the  Hindu  king,  Siddha  Raj 
(a.d.  1094-1143).3  He  adopted  a  Hindu  name  but  told  the 
Muhammadans  that  his  real  name  was  Sayyid  Sa'adat;  he 
is  said  to  have  converted  the  Kanbis,  Kharwas  and  Koris, 
low  castes  of  Gujarat.4 

As  Nur  Satagar  is  revered  as  the  first  missionary  of  the 
Khojahs,  so  is  'Abd  Allah  believed  by  some  to  have  been 
the  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Bohras,  a  large  and  important 
community  of  Shi'ahs,  mainly  of  Hindu  origin,  who  are 
found  in  considerable  numbers  in  the  chief  commercial 
centres  of  the  Bombay  Presidency.  But  others  ascribe 
the  honour  of  being  the  first  Bohra  missionary  to  Mulla 
'AIT,  of  whose  proselytising  methods  the  following  account 
is  given  by  a  Shi'ah  historian :  "As  the  people  of 
Gujarat  in  those  days  were  infidels  and  accepted  as 
their  religious   leader   an   old  man   whose   teaching   they 

1  Khoja  Vrttant,  p.  208.  Sir  Bartle  Frere :  The  Khojas  :  the  Disciples 
of  the  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain.  Macmillan's  Magazine,  vol.  xxxiv. 
PP-  43L  433-4-     (London,  1876.) 

2  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  ix.  part  ii.  p.  26. 

3  K.  B.  Fazalullah  Lutfullah  conjectures  that  Nur  Satagar  came  to 
India  rather  later,  in  the  reign  of  Bhima  II  (a.d.  1 179-1242.)  (Bombay 
Gazetteer,  vol.  ix.  part  ii.  p.  38.) 

4  Khoja  Vrttant,  p.  154-8. 


276  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

blindly  followed,  Mulla  'AH  saw  no  alternative  but  to  go 
to  the  old  man  and  ask  to  become  his  disciple,  intending 
to  set  before  him  such  convincing  arguments  that  he  would 
become  a  Musalman,  and  afterwards  to  attempt  the  con- 
version of  others.  He  accordingly  spent  some  years  in  the 
service  of  the  old  man,  and  having  learned  the  language  of 
the  people  of  the  country,  read  their  books  and  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  their  sciences.  Step  by  step  he  unfolded  to 
the  enlightened  mind  of  the  old  man  the  truth  of  the  faith 
of  Islam  and  persuaded  him  to  become  a  Musalman.  After 
his  conversion,  some  of  his  disciples  followed  the  old  man's 
example.  Finally,  the  chief  minister  of  the  king  of  that 
country  became  aware  of  the  old  man's  conversion  to 
Islam,  and  going  to  see  him  submitted  to  his  spiritual  guid- 
ance and  likewise  became  a  Musalman.  For  a  long  time, 
the  old  man,  the  minister  and  the  rest  of  the  converts  to 
Islam,  kept  the  fact  of  their  conversion  concealed  and  through 
fear  of  the  king  always  took  care  to  prevent  it  coming  to  his 
knowledge ;  but  at  length  the  king  received  a  report  of  the 
minister's  having  adopted  Islam  and  began  to  make  inquiries. 
One  day,  without  giving  previous  notice,  he  went  to  the 
minister's  house  and  found  him  bowing  his  head  in  prayer 
and  was  vexed  with  him.  The  minister  recognised  the 
purpose  of  the  king's  visit,  and  realised  that  his  displeasure 
had  been  excited  by  suspicions  aroused  by  his  prayer,  with 
its  bowing  and  prostrations ;  but  the  guidance  of  God  and 
divine  grace  befitting  the  occasion,  he  said  that  he  was 
making  these  movements  because  he  was  watching  a  serpent 
in  the  corner  of  the  room.  When  the  king  turned  towards 
the  corner  of  the  room,  by  divine  providence  he  saw  a  snake 
there,  and  accepted  the  minister's  excuse  and  his  mind 
was  cleared  of  all  suspicions.  In  the  end  the  king  also 
secretly  became  a  Musalman,  but  for  reasons  of  state  con- 
cealed his  change  of  mind;  when  however,  the  hour  of  his 
death  drew  near,  he  gave  orders  that  his  body  was  not  to 
be  burnt,  as  is  the  custom  of  the  infidels.  Subsequently 
to  his  decease,  when  Sultan  Zafar,  one  of  the  trusty  nobles 
of  Sultan  Firiiz  Shah,  king  of  Dehli,  conquered  Gujarat,  some 
of  the  Sunni  nobles  who  accompanied  him  used  arguments 
to  make  the  people  join  the  Sunni  sect  of  the  Muslim  faith; 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA  277 

so  some  of  the  Bohras  are  Sunnls,  but  the  greater  part  remain 
true  to  their  original  faith."  * 

Several  small  groups  of  Musalmans  in  Cutch  and  Gujarat 
trace  their  conversion  to  Imam  Shah  of  Pirana,2  who  was 
actively  engaged  in  missionary  work  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  He  is  said  to  have  converted  a 
large  body  of  Hindu  cultivators,  by  bringing  about  a  fall  of 
rain  after  two  seasons  of  scarcity.  On  another  occasion 
meeting  a  band  of  Hindu  pilgrims  passing  through  Pirana 
on  their  way  to  Benares,  he  offered  to  take  them  there ;  they 
agreed  and  in  a  moment  were  in  the  holy  city,  where  they 
bathed  in  the  Ganges  and  paid  their  vows ;  they  then  awoke 
to  find  themselves  still  in  Pirana  and  adopted  the  faith  of 
the  saint  who  could  perform  such  a  miracle.  He  died  in 
1512  and  his  tomb  in  Pirana  is  still  an  object  of  pilgrimage 
for  Hindus  as  well  as  for  Muhammadans.3 

Many  of  the  Cutch  Musalmans  that  are  of  Hindu  descent 
reverence  as  their  spiritual  leader  Dawal  Shah  Pir,  whose 
real  name  was  Malik  'Abd  al-Latif,4  the  son  of  one  of  the 
nobles  of  Mahmud  Bigarah  (145 9-1 5 n),  the  famous  monarch 
of  the  Muhammadan  dynasty  of  Gujarat,  to  whose  reign 
popular  tradition  assigns  the  date  of  the  conversion  of  many 
Hindus.5 

It  is  in  Bengal,  however,  that  the  Muhammadan  mission- 
aries in  India  have  achieved  their  greatest  success,  as  far  as 
numbers  are  concerned.  A  Muhammadan  kingdom  was  first 
founded  here  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  by  Muham- 
mad Bakhtiyar  Khilji,  who  conquered  Bihar  and  Bengal 
and  made  Gaur  the  capital  of  the  latter  province.  The  long 
continuance  of  the  Muhammadan  rule  would  naturally  assist 
the  spread  of  Islam,  and  though  the  Hindu  rule  was  restored 
for  ten  years  under  the  tolerant  Raja  Kans,  whose  rule  is 
said  to  have  been  popular  with  his  Muhammadan  subjects,6 
his  son,  Jatmall,  renounced  the  Hindu  religion  and  became 
a  Musalman.     After  his  father's  death  in  1414  he  called 

1  Nur  Allah  al-Shushtari :  Majalis  al-Mu'minin,  fol.  65.     (India  Office 
MS.  No.  1400.)  2  A  town  ten  miles  south-west  of  Ahmadabad. 

3  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  ix.  part  ii.  pp.  66,  76. 

4  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  v.  p.  89. 

5  Id.  vol.  ii.  p.  378;  vol.  iii.  pp.  36-7. 

6  So  Firishtah,  but  see  H.  Blochmann  :  Contributions  to  the  Geography 
and  History  of  Bengal.     (J.  A.  S.  B.,  vol.  xlii.  No.  1,  pp.  264-6.    1873.} 


278  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

together  all  the  officers  of  the  state  and  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  embracing  Islam,  and  proclaimed  that  if  the  chiefs 
would  not  permit  him  to  ascend  the  throne,  he  was  ready 
to  give  it  up  to  his  brother;  whereupon  they  declared  that 
they  would  accept  him  as  their  king,  whatever  religion  he 
might  adopt.  Accordingly,  several  learned  men  of  the 
Muslim  faith  were  summoned  to  witness  the  Raja  renounce 
the  Hindu  religion  and  publicly  profess  his  acceptance  of 
Islam  :  he  took  the  name  of  Jalal  al-DIn  Muhammad  Shah, 
and  according  to  tradition  numerous  conversions  were  made 
during  his  reign.1  Many  of  these  were  however  due  to  force, 
for  his  reign  is  signalised  as  being  the  only  one  in  which  any 
wholesale  persecution  of  the  subject  Hindus  is  recorded, 
during  the  five  centuries  and  a  half  of  Muhammadan  rule 
in  Eastern  Bengal.2 

Conversions,  however,  often  took  place  at  other  times 
under  pressure  from  the  Muhammadan  government.  The 
Rajas  of  Kharagpur  were  originally  Hindus,  and  became 
Muhammadans  because,  having  been  defeated  by  one  of 
Akbar's  generals,  they  were  only  allowed  to  retain  the 
family  estates  on  the  condition  that  they  embraced  Islam. 
The  Hindu  ancestor  of  the  family  of  Asad  'AH  Khan,  in 
Chittagong,  was  deprived  of  his  caste  by  being  forced  to 
smell  beef  and  had  perforce  to  become  a  Muhammadan,  and 
several  other  instances  of  the  same  kind  might  be  quoted.3 

Murshid  Quli  Khan  (son  of  a  converted  Brahman) ,  who  was 
made  governor  of  Bengal  by  the  Emperor  Aurangzeb  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  enforced  a  law  that 
any  official  or  landord,  who  failed  to  pay  the  revenue  that 
was  due  or  was  unable  to  make  good  the  loss,  should  with 
his  wife  and  children  be  compelled  to  become  Muhammadans. 
Further,  it  was  the  common  law  that  any  Hindu  who  forfeited 
his  caste  by  a  breach  of  regulations  could  only  be  reinstated 
by  the  Muhammadan  government ;  if  the  government  refused 
to  interfere,  the  outcast  had  no  means  of  regaining  his 
position  in  the  social  system  of  the  Hindus,  and  would 
probably  find  no  resource  but  to  become  a  Musalman.4 

1  J.  H.  Ravenshaw  :  Gaur  :  its  ruins  and  inscriptions,  p.  99.     (London, 
1878.)     Firishtah,  vol.  iv.  p.  337.  2  Wise,  p.  29. 

3  Census  of  India,  1901,  vol,  vi.  part  i.  p.  170.  4  Id.  p.  30. 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   INDIA         279 

The  Afghan  adventurers  who  settled  in  this  province  also 
appear  to  have  been  active  in  the  work  of  proselytising,  for 
besides  the  children  that  they  had  by  Hindu  women,  they 
used  to  purchase  a  number  of  boys  in  times  of  scarcity,  and 
educate  them  in  the  tenets  of  Islam.1  But  it  is  not  in  the 
ancient  centres  of  the  Muhammadan  government  that  the 
Musalmans  of  Bengal  are  found  in  large  numbers,  but  in 
the  country  districts,  in  districts  where  there  are  no  traces 
of  settlers  from  the  West,  and  in  places  where  low-caste 
Hindus  and  outcasts  most  abound.2  The  similarity  of  man- 
ners between  these  low-caste  Hindus  and  the  followers  of 
the  Prophet,  and  the  caste  distinctions  which  they  still 
retain,  as  well  as  their  physical  likeness,  all  bear  the  same 
testimony  and  identify  the  Bengal  Musalmans  with  the 
aboriginal  tribes  of  the  country.  Here  Islam  met  with  no 
consolidated  religious  system  to  bar  its  progress,  as  in  the 
north-west  of  India,  where  the  Muhammadan  invaders  found 
Brahmanism  full  of  fresh  life  and  vigour  after  its  triumphant 
struggle  with  Buddhism ;  where,  in  spite  of  persecutions,  its 
influence  was  an  inspiring  force  in  the  opposition  offered  by 
the  Hindus,  and  retained  its  hold  on  them  in  the  hour  of 
their  deepest  distress  and  degradation.  But  in  Bengal  the 
Muslim  missionaries  were  welcomed  with  open  arms  by  the 
aborigines  and  the  low  castes  on  the  very  outskirts  of 
Hinduism,  despised  and  condemned  by  their  proud  Aryan 
rulers.  "  To  these  poor  people,  fishermen,  hunters,  pirates, 
and  low-caste  tillers  of  the  soil,  Islam  came  as  a  revelation 
from  on  high.  It  was  the  creed  of  the  ruling  race,  its 
missionaries  were  men  of  zeal  who  brought  the  Gospel  of  the 
unity  of  God  and  the  equality  of  men  in  its  sight  to  a  de- 
spised and  neglected  population.  The  initiatory  rite  rendered 
relapse  impossible,  and  made  the  proselyte  and  his  posterity 
true  believers  for  ever.  In  this  way  Islam  settled  down  on 
the  richest  alluvial  province  of  India,  the  province  which 
was  capable  of  supporting  the  most  rapid  and  densest 
increase  of  population.  Compulsory  conversions  are  occa- 
sionally recorded.     But  it  was  not  to  force  that  Islam  owed 

1  Charles  Stewart  :  The  History  of  Bengal,  p.  176.  (London,  1813.)  H. 
Blochmann  :  Contributions  to  the  Geography  and  History  of  Bengal. 
(J.  A.  S.  B.,  vol.  xlii.  No.  1,  p.  220.     1873.) 

8  The  Indian  Evangelical  Review,  p.  278.     (January  1883.) 


280  THE  PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

its  permanent  success  in  Lower  Bengal.  It  appealed  to  the 
people,  and  it  derived  the  great  mass  of  its  converts  from 
the  poor.  It  brought  in  a  higher  conception  of  God,  and 
a  nobler  idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  It  offered  to  the 
teeming  low  castes  of  Bengal,  who  had  sat  for  ages  abject 
on  the  outermost  pale  of  the  Hindu  community,  a  free 
entrance  into  a  new  social  organisation."  1 

The  existence  in  Bengal  of  definite  missionary  efforts  is 
said  to  be  attested  by  certain  legends  of  the  zeal  of  private 
individuals  on  behalf  of  their  religion,  and  the  graves  of 
some  of  these  missionaries  are  still  honoured,  and  are 
annually  visited  by  hundreds  of  pilgrims.2  One  of  the 
earliest  of  these  was  Shaykh  Jalal  al-DIn  Tabriz!,  who 
died  in  a.d.  1244.  He  was  a  pupil  of  the  great  saint, 
Shihab  al-Din  Suhrawardi.  In  the  course  of  his  mis- 
sionary journeys  he  visited  Bengal,  where  a  shrine  to 
which  is  attached  a  rich  endowment  was  erected  in  his 
honour,  the  real  site  of  his  tomb  being  unknown.  Many 
miracles  are  ascribed  to  him;  among  others,  that  he 
converted  a  Hindu  milkman  to  Islam  by  a  single  look.3 

In  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  a  remarkable  revival 
of  the  Muhammadan  religion  in  Bengal,  and  several  sects 
that  owe  their  origin  to  the  influence  of  the  Wahhabi 
reformation,  have  sent  their  missionaries  through  the 
province  purging  out  the  remnants  of  Hindu  superstitions, 
awakening  religious  zeal  and  spreading  the  faith  among 
unbelievers.4 

Some  account  still  remains  to  be  given  of  Muslim  mission- 
aries who  have  laboured  in  parts  of  India  other  than  those 
mentioned  above.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  is  Shaykh 
Isma'il,  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the  Sayyids  of  Bukhara, 
distinguished  alike  for  his  secular  and  religious  learning; 
he  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  Muslim  missionary  who 
preached  the  faith  of  Islam  in  the  city  of  Lahore,  whither 
he  came  in  the  year  a.d.  1005.  Crowds  flocked  to  listen  to 
his  sermons,  and  the  number  of  his  converts  swelled  rapidly 
day  by  day,  and  it  is  said  that  no  unbeliever  ever  came 

1  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter  :  The  Religions  of  India.     (The  Times,  February  25, 
1888.)     See  also  Wise,  p.  32.  2  Wise,  p.  37. 

3  Blochmann,  op.  cit.  p.  260.  *  Wise,  pp.  48-55. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         281 

into  personal  contact  with  him  without  being  converted  to 
the  faith  of  Islam.1 

The  conversion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  western  plains  of 
the  Pan  jab  is  said  to  have  been  effected  through  the  preach- 
ing of  Baha  al-Haqq  of  Multan  2  and  Baba  Farid  al-DIn  of 
Pakpattan,  who  flourished  about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
and  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  centuries.3  A  biographer 
of  the  latter  saint  gives  a  list  of  sixteen  tribes  who  were 
won  over  to  Islam  through  his  preaching,  but  unfortunately 
provides  us  with  no  details  of  this  work  of  conversion.4 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  Muslim  saints  of  India 
and  a  pioneer  of  Islam  in  Rajputana  was  Khwajah  Mu'in 
al-DIn  Chishti,  who  died  in  Ajmir  in  a.d.  1234.  He  was  a 
native  of  Sajistan  to  the  east  of  Persia,  and  is  said  to  have 
received  his  call  to  preach  Islam  to  the  unbelievers  in  India 
while  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Medina.  Here  the  Prophet  appeared 
to  him  in  a  dream  and  thus  addressed  him  :  "  The  Almighty 
has  entrusted  the  country  of  India  to  thee.  Go  thither  and 
settle  in  Ajmir.  By  God's  help,  the  faith  of  Islam  shall, 
through  thy  piety  and  that  of  thy  followers,  be  spread  in 
that  land."  He  obeyed  the  call  and  made  his  way  to  Ajmir 
which  was  then  under  Hindu  rule  and  idolatry  prevailed 
throughout  the  land.  Among  the  first  of  his  converts  here 
was  a  Yogi,  who  was  the  spiritual  preceptor  of  the  Raja 
himself  :  gradually  he  gathered  around  him  a  large  body  of 
disciples  whom  his  teachings  had  won  from  the  ranks  of 
infidelity,  and  his  fame  as  a  religious  leader  became  very 
widespread  and  attracted  to  Ajmir  great  numbers  of  Hindus 
whom  he  persuaded  to  embrace  Islam.5  On  his  way  to 
Ajmir  he  is  said  to  have  converted  as  many  as  700  persons 
in  the  city  of  Dehli. 

Of  immense  importance  in  the  history  of  Islam  in  India 
was  the  arrival  in  that  country  of  Sayyid  Jalal  al-Din,  who 
is  said  to  have  been  born  at  Bukhara  in  1199.  He  settled 
in  Uch,  now  in  the  Bahawalpur  territory,  in  1244,  and 
converted  numbers   of  persons   in  the  neighbourhood  to 

1  Ghulam  Sarwar  :  Khazlnat  al-Asfiya,  vol.  ii.  p.  230. 

2  Otherwise  known  as  Shaykh  Baha  al-Din  Zakariyya. 

3  Ibbetson,  p.  163. 

4  Asghar  'Ali :  Jawahir-i-Farldi  (a.h.  1033),  p.  395-     (Lahore,  1884.) 
6  Elliot,  vol.  ii.  p.  548. 


282  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Islam;  he  died  in  1291,  and  his  descendants,  many  of  whom 
are  also  revered  as  saints,  have  remained  as  guardians  of 
his  shrine  up  to  the  present  day  and  form  the  centre  of  a 
widespread  religious  influence.  His  grandson,  Sayyid 
Ahmad  Kabir,  known  as  Makhdum-i- Jahaniyan ,  is  credited 
with  having  effected  the  conversion  of  several  tribes  in  the 
Punjab.1  About  a  mile  to  the  east  of  Uch  is  situated  the 
shrine  of  Hasan  Kabir  al-Din,  son  of  Sayyid  Sadr  al-Din, 
who  was  a  contemporary  of  Jalal-al-Dm ;  both  father  and 
son  are  said  to  have  made  many  converts,  and  such  was 
the  influence  attributed  to  Hasan  Kabir  al-Din  that  it  was 
said  as  soon  as  his  glance  fell  upon  any  Hindu,  the  latter 
would  accept  Islam.2 

Rather  later  in  the  same  century,  a  native  of  Persian 
'Iraq,  by  name  Abu  'AH  Qalandar,  came  into  India  and 
took  up  his  residence  at  Panipat,  where  he  died  at  the  ripe 
age  of  100,  in  a.d.  1324.  The  Muslim  Rajputs  of  this  city, 
numbering  about  300  males,  are  descended  from  a  certain 
Amir  Singh  who  was  converted  by  this  saint.  His  tomb 
is  still  held  in  honour  and  is  visited  by  many  pilgrims. 

Another  such  was  Shaykh  Jalal  al-Din,  a  Persian  who 
came  into  India  about  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century  and  settled  down  at  Silhat,  in  Lower  Assam,  in 
order  to  convert  the  people  of  these  parts  to  Islam.  He 
achieved  a  great  reputation  as  a  holy  man,  and  his  proselyt- 
ising labours  were  crowned  with  eminent  success.3 

In  more  recent  years  there  have  been  abundant  witnesses 
for  Islam  seeking  to  spread  this  faith  in  India — and  with 
very  considerable  success ;  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  especially  witnessed  a  great  revival  of  missionary 
activity,  the  number  of  annual  conversions  being  variously 
estimated  at  ten,  fifty,  one  hundred  and  six  hundred 
thousand.4  But  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  accurate  information 
on  account  of  the  peculiarly  individualistic  character  of 
Muslim  missionary  work  and  the  absence  of  any  central 

1  Punjab  States  Gazetteers,  vol.  xxxvi  A.  Bahawalpur  State.  (Lahore, 
1908),  p.  160  sqq.  The  names  of  some  of  the  tribes  who  ascribe  their 
conversion  to  Makhdum-i- Jahaniyan  are  given  on  p.  162. 

2  Id.  p.  171.  3  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  p.  217.     Yule,  p.  515. 

4  The  Indian  Evangelical  Review,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  52-3.  (Calcutta,  1889-90.) 
The  Contemporary  Review,  February  1889,  p.  170,  The  Spectator, 
October  15,  1887,  p.  1382. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA        .283 

organisation  or  of  anything  in  the  way  of  missionary  reports, 
and  the  success  that  attends  the  labours  of  Muslim  preachers 
is  sometimes  much  exaggerated,  e.  g.  in  the  Panjab  a  certain 
Haji  Muhammad  is  said  to  have  converted  as  many  as 
200,000  Hindus,1  and  a  mawlavi  in  Bangalore  boasted  that 
in  five  years  he  had  made  as  many  as  1000  converts  in  this 
city  and  its  suburbs.  But  that  there  are  Muslim  missionaries 
engaged  in  active  and  successful  propagandist  labours  is 
undoubted,  and  the  following  examples  are  typical  of  the 
period  referred  to. 

Mawlavi  Baqa  Husayn  Khan,  an  itinerant  preacher,  in 
the  course  of  several  years  converted  228  persons,  residents 
of  Bombay,  Cawnpore,  Ajmlr,  and  other  cities.  Mawlavi 
Hasan  'AH  converted  twenty-five  persons,  twelve  in  Poona, 
the  rest  in  Haydarabad  and  other  parts  of  India.2  In  the 
district  of  Khandesh,  in  the  Bombay  Presidency,  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Qadi  of  Nasirabad,  Sayyid  Safdar  'AH,  won  over 
to  Islam  a  large  body  of  artisans,  who  follow  the  trade  of 

1  Garcin  de  Tassy  :  La  Langue  et  la  Litterature  Hindoustanies  de  1850  a 
1869,  p.  343.     (Paris,  1874.) 

2  Mawlavi  Hasan  'Ali  furnished  me  with  these  figures  some  years  before 
his  death  in  1896.  In  an  obituary  notice  published  in  "  The  Moslem 
Chronicle  '  (April  4,  1896),  the  following  quaint  account  is  given  of  his 
life  :  "In  private  and  school  life,  he  was  marked  as  a  very  intelligent  lad 
and  made  considerable  progress  in  his  scholastic  career  within  a  short  time. 
He  passed  Entrance  at  a  very  early  age  and  received  scholarship  with  which 
he  went  up  to  the  First  Art,  but  shortly  after  his  innate  anxiety  to  seek 
truth  prompted  him  to  go  abroad  the  world,  and  abandoning  his  studies  he 
mixed  with  persons  of  different  persuasions,  Fakirs,  Pandits,  and  Christians, 
entered  churches,  and  roamed  over  wilderness  and  forests  and  cities  with 
nothing  to  help  him  on  except  his  sincere  hopes  and  absolute  reliance  on 
the  mercy  of  the  Great  Lord ;  for  one  year  he  wandered  in  various  regions 
of  religion  until  in  1874  he  accepted  the  post  of  a  headmaster  in  a  Patna 
school.  ...  As  he  was  born  to  become  a  missionary  of  the  Moslem  faith, 
he  felt  an  imperceptible  craving  to  quit  his  post,  from  which  he  used  to  get 
Rs.  100  per  mensem.  He  tendered  his  resignation,  much  to  the  reluctance 
of  his  friends,  and  maintained  himself  for  some  time  by  publishing  a  monthly 
journal,  '  Noorul  Islam.'  He  gave  several  lectures  on  Islam  at  Patna,  and 
then  went  to  Calcutta,  where  he  delivered  his  lecture  in  English,  which 
produced  such  effect  on  the  audience  that  several  European  clergymen 
vouchsafed  the  truth  of  Islam,  and  a  notable  gentleman,  Babu  Bepin 
Chandra  Pal,  was  about  to  become  Musalman.  He  was  invited  by  the 
people  at  Dacca,  where  his  preachings  and  lectures  left  his  name  imbedded 
in  the  hearts  of  the  citizens.  His  various  books  and  pamphlets  and 
successive  lectures  in  Urdu  and  in  English  in  the  different  cities  and  towns 
in  India  gave  him  a  historic  name  in  the  world.  Some  one  hundred  men 
become  Musalmans  on  hearing  his  lectures  and  reading  his  books."  His 
missionary  zeal  manifested  itself  up  to  the  last  hour  of  his  life,  when  he  was 
overheard  to  say,  "  Abjure  your  religion  and  become  a  Musalman."  On 
being  questioned,  he  said  he  was  talking  to  a  Christian, 


284  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

armourers  or  blacksmiths.1  A  number  of  persons  of  the 
same  trade,  who  form  a  small  community  of  about  200 
souls  in  the  district  of  Nasik,  were  converted  in  a  curious 
way  about  1870.  The  Presbyterian  missionaries  of  Nasik 
had  for  a  long  time  been  trying  to  convert  them  from 
Hinduism,  and  they  were  in  a  state  of  hesitation  as  to 
whether  or  not  to  embrace  Christianity  when  a  Muhammadan 
faqir  from  Bombay,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  their 
habits  of  thought,  expounded  to  them  the  doctrines  of  Islam 
and  succeeded  in  winning  them  over  to  that  faith.2 

In  Patiala,  Mawlavi  'Ubayd  Allah,  a  converted  Brahman 
of  great  learning,  proved  himself  to  be  a  zealous  preacher  of 
Islam,  and  in  spite  of  the  obstacles  that  were  at  first  thrown 
in  his  way  by  his  relatives,  achieved  so  great  a  success  that 
his  converts  almost  filled  an  entire  ward  of  the  city.  He 
wrote  controversial  works,  which  have  passed  through 
several  editions,  directed  against  the  Christian  and  Hindu 
religions.  In  one  of  these  books  he  thus  speaks  of  his  own 
conversion  :  "  I,  Muhammad  'Ubayd  Allah,  the  son  of 
Munshi  Kota  Mai,  resident  of  Payal,  in  the  Patiala  State, 
declare  that  this  poor  man  in  his  childhood  and  during  the 
lifetime  of  his  father  was  held  in  the  bondage  of  idol- worship, 
but  the  mercy  of  God  caught  me  by  the  hand  and  drew  me 
towards  Islam,  i.  e.  I  came  to  know  the  excellence  of  Islam 
and  the  deficiencies  of  Hinduism,  and  I  accepted  Islam  heart 
and  soul  and  counted  myself  one  of  the  servants  of  the 
Prophet  of  God  (peace  be  upon  him  !).  At  that  time  intelli- 
gence, which  is  the  gift  of  God,  suggested  to  me  that  it  was 
mere  folly  and  laziness  to  blindly  follow  the  customs  of  one's 
forefathers  and  be  misled  by  them  and  not  make  researches 
into  matters  of  religion  and  faith,  whereon  depend  our  eternal 
bliss  or  misery.  With  these  thoughts  I  began  to  study  the 
current  faiths  and  investigated  each  of  them  impartially. 
I  thoroughly  explored  the  Hindu  religion  and  conversed 
with  learned  Pandits,  gained  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  faith,  read  the  books  of  Islam  and  conversed  with 
learned  men.  In  all  of  them  I  found  errors  and  fallacies, 
with  the  exception  of  Islam,  the  excellence  of  which  became 

1  Bombay  Gazetteer,  vol.  xii.  p.  126. 

2  Id.  vol.  xvi.  p.  81. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         285 

clearly  manifest  to  me ;  its  leader,  Muhammad  the  Prophet, 
possesses  such  moral  excellences  that  no  tongue  can  describe 
them,  and  he  alone  who  knows  the  beliefs  and  the  liturgy, 
and  the  moral  teachings  and  practice  of  this  faith,  can  fully 
realise  them.  Praise  be  to  God  !  So  excellent  is  this 
religion  that  everything  in  it  leads  the  soul  to  God.  In 
short,  by  the  grace  of  God,  the  distinction  between  truth 
and  falsehood  became  as  clear  to  me  as  night  and  day,  dark- 
ness and  light.  But  although  my  heart  had  long  been 
enlightened  by  the  brightness  of  Islam  and  my  mouth 
fragrant  with  the  profession  of  faith,  yet  my  evil  passions 
and  Satan  had  bound  me  with  the  fetters  of  the  luxury  and 
ease  of  this  fleeting  world,  and  I  was  in  evil  case  because  of 
the  outward  observances  of  idolatry.  At  length,  the  grace 
of  God  thus  admonished  me  :  '  How  long  wilt  thou  keep  this 
priceless  pearl  hidden  within  the  shell  and  this  refreshing 
perfume  shut  up  in  the  casket  ?  thou  shouldest  wear  this 
pearl  about  thy  neck  and  profit  by  this  perfume.'  Moreover 
the  learned  have  declared  that  to  conceal  one's  faith  in 
Islam  and  retain  the  dress  and  habits  of  infidels  brings  a 
man  to  Hell.  So  (God  be  praised  !)  on  the  'Id  al-Fitr  1264 
the  sun  of  my  conversion  emerged  from  its  screen  of  clouds, 
and  I  performed  my  devotions  in  public  with  my  Muslim 
brethren."  1 

Many  Muhammadan  preachers  have  adopted  the  methods 
of  Christian  missionaries,  such  as  street  preaching,  tract 
distribution,  and  other  agencies.  In  many  of  the  large 
cities  of  India,  Muslim  preachers  may  be  found  daily 
expounding  the  teachings  of  Islam  in  some  principal 
thoroughfare.  In  Bangalore  this  practice  is  very  general, 
and  one  of  these  preachers,  who  was  the  imam  of  the  mosque 
about  the  year  1890,  was  so  popular  that  he  was  even  some- 
times invited  to  preach  by  Hindus  :  he  preached  in  the 
market-place,  and  in  the  course  of  seven  or  eight  years 
gained  forty-two  converts.  In  Bombay  a  Muhammadan 
missionary  preaches  almost  daily  near  the  chief  market  of 
the  city,  and  in  Calcutta  there  are  several  preaching-stations 
that  are  kept  constantly  supplied.  Among  the  converts  are 
occasionally  to  be  found  some  Europeans,  mostly  persons  in 

1  Tuhfat  al-Hind,  p.  3.     (Dehli,  a.h.  1309.) 


286  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

indigent  circumstances;  the  mass,  however,  are  Hindus.1 
Some  of  the  numerous  Anjumans  that  have  of  recent  years 
sprung  up  in  the  chief  centres  of  Musalman  life  in  India, 
include  among  their  objects  the  sending  of  missionaries  to 
preach  in  the  bazars ;  such  are  the  Anjuman  Himayat-i-Islam 
of  Lahore,  and  the  Anjuman  Harm  Islam  of  Ajmfr.  These 
particular  Anjumans  appoint  paid  agents,  but  much  of 
the  work  of  preaching  in  the  bazaars  is  performed  by 
persons  who  are  engaged  in  some  trade  or  business  during 
the  working  hours  of  the  day  and  devote  their  leisure  time 
in  the  evenings  to  this  pious  work. 

Much  of  the  missionary  zeal  of  the  Indian  Musalmans  is 
directed  towards  counteracting  the  anti-Islamic  tendencies 
of  the  instruction  given  by  Christian  missionaries  and 
the  preachers  of  the  Arya  Samaj,  and  the  efforts  made 
are  thus  defensive  rather  than  directly  proselytising. 
Some  preachers  too  turn  their  attention  rather  to  the 
strengthening  of  the  foundation  already  laid,  and  en- 
deavour to  rid  their  ignorant  co-religionists  of  their  Hindu 
superstitions,  and  instil  in  them  a  purer  form  of  faith,  such 
efforts  being  in  many  cases  the  continuation  of  earlier  mis- 
sionary activity.  The  work  of  conversion  has  indeed  been 
often  very  imperfect.  Of  many,  nominally  Muslims,  it  may 
be  said  that  they  are  half  Hindus  :  they  observe  caste 
rules,  they  join  in  Hindu  festivals  and  practise  numerous 
idolatrous  ceremonies.  In  certain  districts  also,  e.  g.  in 
Mewat  and  Gurgaon,  large  numbers  of  Muhammadans  may 
be  found  who  know  nothing  of  their  religion  but  its  name  ; 
they  have  no  mosques,  nor  do  they  observe  the  hours  of 
prayer.  This  is  especially  the  case  among  the  Muhammadans 
of  the  villages  or  in  parts  of  the  country  where  they  are 
isolated  from  the  mass  of  believers;  but  in  the  towns  the 
presence  of  learned  religious  men  tends,  in  great  measure, 
to  counteract  the  influence  of  former  superstitions,  and  makes 
for  a  purer  and  more  intelligent  form  of  religious  life.  In 
recent  years,  however,  there  has  been,  speaking  generally, 
a  movement  noticeable  among  the  Indian  Muslims  towards 

1  The  Indian  Evangelical  Review,  1884,  p.  128.  Garcin  de  Tassy  :  La 
Langue  et  la  Litterature  Hindoustanies  de  1850  a  1869,  p.  485.  (Paris,  1874.) 
Garcin  de  Tassy  :  La  Langue  et  la  Litterature  Hindoustanies  en  1871,  p.  12. 
(Paris,  1872.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         287 

a  religious  life  more  strictly  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
of  Islam.  The  influence  of  the  Christian  mission  schools  has 
also  been  very  great  in  stimulating  among  some  Muhamma- 
dans  of  the  younger  generation  a  study  of  their  own  religion 
and  in  bringing  about  a  consequent  awakening  of  religious 
zeal.  Indeed,  the  spread  of  education  generally,  has  led 
to  a  more  intelligent  grasp  of  religious  principles  and  to  an 
increase  of  religious  teachers  in  outlying  and  hitherto 
neglected  districts.  This  missionary  movement  of  reform 
(from  whatever  cause  it  may  originate),  may  be  observed 
in  very  different  parts  of  India.  In  the  eastern  districts 
of  the  Panjab,  for  example,  after  the  Mutiny,  a  great  religious 
revival  took  place.  Preachers  travelled  far  and  wide  through 
the  country,  calling  upon  believers  to  abandon  their  idolatrous 
practices  and  expounding  the  true  tenets  of  the  faith.  Now, 
in  consequence,  most  villages,  in  which  Muhammadans  own 
any  considerable  portion,  have  a  mosque,  while  the  grosser 
and  more  open  idolatries  are  being  discontinued.1  In 
Rajputana  also,  the  Hindu  tribes  who  have  been  from  time 
to  time  converted  to  Islam  in  the  rural  districts,  are  now 
becoming  more  orthodox  and  regular  in  their  religious 
observances,  and  are  abandoning  the  ancient  customs  which 
hitherto  they  had  observed  in  common  with  their  idolatrous 
neighbours.  The  Merats,  for  example,  now  follow  the 
orthodox  Muhammadan  form  of  marriage  instead  of  the 
Hindu  ritual  they  formerly  observed,  and  have  abjured 
the  flesh  of  the  wild  boar.2  A  similar  revival  in  Bengal  has 
already  been  spoken  of  above. 

Such  movements  and  the  efforts  of  individual  missionaries 
are,  however,  quite  inadequate  to  explain  the  rapid  increase 
of  the  Muhammadans  of  India,  and  one  is  naturally  led  to 
inquire  what  are  the  causes  other  than  the  normal  increase 
of  population,3  which  add  so  enormously  to  their  numbers. 
The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  social  conditions  of  life 
among  Hindus.  The  insults  and  contempt  heaped  upon 
the  lower  castes  of  Hindus  by  their  co-religionists,  and  the 
impassable  obstacles  placed  in  the  way  of  any  member  of 

1  Ibbetson,  p.  184. 

2  The  Rajputana  Gazetteer,  vol.  i.  p.  90;  vol.  ii-  p-  47-     (Calcutta,  1879.) 

3  On  these  as  they  affect  the  Muhammadans,  see  the  Census  of  India, 
1901.     Vol.  vi.  p.  172. 


288  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

these  castes  desiring  to  better  his  condition,  show  up  in 
striking  contrast  the  benefits  of  a  religious  system  which 
has  no  outcasts,  and  gives  free  scope  for  the  indulgence  of 
any  ambition.  In  Bengal,  for  example,  the  weavers  of 
cotton  piece-goods,  who  are  looked  upon  as  vile  by  their 
Hindu  co-religionists,  embrace  Islam  in  large  numbers  to 
escape  from  the  low  position  to  which  they  are  otherwise 
degraded.1  A  very  remarkable  instance  of  a  similar  kind 
occurs  in  the  history  of  the  north-eastern  part  of  the  same 
province.  Here  in  the  year  1550  the  aboriginal  tribe  of  the 
Kocch  established  a  dynasty  under  their  great  leader,  Haju  ; 
in  the  reign  of  his  grandson,  when  the  higher  classes  in  the 
state  were  received  into  the  pale  of  Hinduism,2  the  mass  of 
the  people  finding  themselves  despised  as  outcasts,  became 
Muhammadans.3 

The  escape  that  Islam  offers  to  Hindus  from  the  oppression 
of  the  higher  castes  was  strikingly  illustrated  in  Tinnevelli 
at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  A  very  low  caste, 
the  Shanars,  had  in  recent  years  become  prosperous  and 
many  of  them  had  built  fine  houses ;  they  asserted  that  they 
had  the  right  to  worship  in  temples,  from  which  they  had 
hitherto  been  excluded.  A  riot  ensued,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  Shanars  suffered  badly  at  the  hands  of  Hindus  of  a  higher 
caste,  and  they  took  refuge  in  the  pale  of  Islam.  Six  hundred 
Shanars  in  one  village  became  Muslims  in  one  day,  and  their 
example  was  quickly  followed  in  other  places.4 

Similar  instances  might  be  given  from  other  parts  of 
India.  A  Hindu  who  has  in  any  way  lost  caste  and  been 
in  consequence  repudiated  by  his  relations  and  by  the 
society  of  which  he  has  been  accustomed  to  move,  would 
naturally  be  attracted  towards  a  religion  that  receives  all 
without  distinction,  and  offers  to  him  a  grade  of  society 
equal  in  the  social  scale  to  that  from  which  he  has  been 
banished.  Such  a  change  of  religion  might  well  be  accom- 
panied with  sincere  conviction,  but  men  also  who  might 
be  profoundly  indifferent  to  the  number  or  names  of  the 

1  E.  T.  Dalton,  p.  324. 

2  For  an  account  of  such  Hinduising  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  see  Sir 
Alfred  Lyall  :  Asiatic  Studies,  pp.  102-4.  3  E.  T.  Dalton,  p.  89. 

4  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  N.  S.  vol.  xiii,  pp.  72-3.  (New 
York,  1900.) 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         289 

deities  they  were  called  upon  to  worship,  would  feel  very 
keenly  the  social  ostracism  entailed  by  their  loss  of  caste,  and 
become  Muhammadan  without  any  religious  feelings  at  all. 
The  influence  of  the  study  of  Muhammadan  literature  also, 
and  the  habitual  contact  with  Muhammadan  society,  must 
often  make  itself  insensibly  felt.  Among  the  Rajput  princes 
of  the  nineteenth  century  in  Rajputana  and  Bundelkhand, 
such  tendencies  towards  Islamism  were  to  be  observed,1 
tendencies  which,  had  the  Mughal  empire  lasted,  would 
probably  have  led  to  their  ultimate  conversion.  They  not 
only  respected  Muhammadan  saints,  but  had  Muhammadan 
tutors  for  their  sons;  they  also  had  their  food  killed  in 
accordance  with  the  regulations  laid  down  by  the  Muham- 
madan law,  and  joined  in  the  Muhammadan  festivals  dressed 
as  faqirs,  and  praying  like  true  believers.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  has  been  conjectured  that  the  present  position  of 
affairs,  under  a  government  perfectly  impartial  in  matters 
religious,  is  much  more  likely  to  promote  conversions  among 
the  Hindus  generally  than  was  the  case  under  the  rule  of  the 
Muhammadan  kingdoms,  when  Hinduism  gained  union  and 
strength  from  the  constant  struggle  with  an  aggressive 
enemy.2  Hindus,  too,  often  flock  in  large  numbers  to  the 
tombs  of  Muslim  saints  on  the  day  appointed  to  commemorate 
them,  and  a  childless  father,  with  the  feeling  that  prompts 
a  polytheist  to  leave  no  God  unaddressed,  will  present  his 
petition  to  the  God  of  the  Muhammadans,  and  if  children 
are  born  to  him,  apparently  in  answer  to  this  prayer,  the 
whole  family  will  in  such  a  case  (and  examples  are  not 
infrequent)  embrace  Islam.3 

1  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  (Asiatic  Studies,  p.  29)  speaks  of  the  perceptible 
proclivity  towards  the  faith  of  Islam  occasionally  exhibited  by  some  of 
the  Hindu  chiefs. 

2  Gazetteer  of  the  Province  of  Oudh,  vol.  i.  p.  xix. 

3  To  give  one  instance  only  :  in  Ghatampur,  in  the  district  of  Cawnpore, 
one  branch  of  a  large  family  is  Muslim  in  obedience  to  the  vow  of  their 
ancestor,  Ghatam  Deo  Bais,  who  while  praying  for  a  son  at  the  shrine  of  a 
Muhammadan  saint,  Madar  Shah,  promised  that  if  his  prayer  were  granted, 
half  his  descendants  should  be  brought  up  as  Muslims.  (Gazetteer  of  the 
N.W.P.  vol.  vi.  pp.  64,  238.) 

The  worship  of  Muhammadan  saints  is  so  common  among  certain  low- 
caste  Hindus  that  in  the  Census  of  1891,  in  the  North- Western  Provinces 
and  Oudh  alone,  2,333,643  Hindus  (or  5-78  per  cent,  of  the  total  Hindu 
population  of  these  provinces)  returned  themselves  as  worshippers  of 
Muhammadan  saints.  (Census  of  India,  1891,  vol.  xvi.  part  i.  pp.  217,  244). 
(Allahabad,  1894.) 
U 


290  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Love  for  a  Muhammadan  woman  is  occasionally  the 
cause  of  the  conversion  of  a  Hindu,  since  the  marriage  of  a 
Muslim  woman  to  an  unbeliever  is  absolutely  forbidden  by 
the  Muslim  law.  Hindu  children,  if  adopted  by  wealthy 
Musalmans,  would  be  brought  up  in  the  religion  of  their 
new  parents ;  and  a  Hindu  wife,  married  to  a  follower  of  the 
Prophet,  would  be  likely  to  adopt  the  faith  of  her  husband.1 
As  the  contrary  process  can  rarely  take  place,  the  number 
of  Muhammadans  is  bound  to  increase  in  proportion  to  that 
of  the  Hindus.  Hindus,  who  for  some  reason  or  other  have 
been  driven  out  of  their  caste;  the  poor  who  have  become 
the  recipients  of  Muhammadan  charity,  or  women  and 
children  who  have  been  protected  when  their  parents  have 
died  or  deserted  them — (such  cases  would  naturally  be 
frequent  in  times  of  famine) — form  a  continuous  though 
small  stream  of  additions  from  the  Hindus.2  There  are 
often  local  circumstances  favourable  to  the  growth  of  Islam ; 
for  example,  it  has  been  pointed  out 3  that  in  the  villages  of 
the  Terai,  in  which  the  number  of  Hindus  and  Muhammadans 
happen  to  be  equally  balanced,  any  increase  in  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  Muhammadans  is  invariably  followed  by 
disputes  about  the  killing  of  cows  and  other  practices  offensive 
to  Hindu  feeling.  The  Hindus  gradually  move  away  from 
the  village,  leaving  behind  of  their  creed  only  the  Chamar 
ploughman  in  the  service  of  the  Muhammadan  peasants. 
These  latter  eventually  adopt  the  religion  of  their  masters, 
not  from  any  conviction  of  its  truth,  but  from  the  incon- 
venience their  isolation  entails. 

Some  striking  instances  of  conversions  from  the  lower 
castes  of  Hindus  are  also  found  in  the  agricultural  districts 
of  Oudh.  Although  the  Muhammadans  of  this  province 
form  only  one-tenth  of  the  whole  population,  still  the  small 
groups  of  Muhammadan  cultivators  form  "  scattered  centres 
of  revolt  against  the  degrading  oppression  to  which  their 
religion  hopelessly  consigns  these  lower  castes." 4  The 
advantages  Islam  holds  out  to  such  classes  as  the  Koris 

1  Instances  of  such  causes  of  conversion  are  given  in  the  Census  of  India, 
1901.     Vol.  vi.  Bengal,  part,  i,  Appendix  II. 

2  Report  on  the  Census  of  the  N.W.P.  and  Oudh,  1 881,  by  Edward  White, 
p.  62.     (Allahabad,  1882.) 

3  Id.  p.  63.  *  Gazetteer  of  the  Province  of  Oudh,  vol.  i.  p.  xix. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA         291 

and  Chamars,  who  stand  at  the  lowest  level  of  Hindu  society, 
and  the  deliverance  which  conversion  to  Islam  brings  them, 
may  be  best  understood  from  the  following  passage  descrip- 
tive of  their  social  condition  as  Hindus.1  "  The  lowest  depth 
of  misery  and  degradation  is  reached  by  the  Koris  and 
Chamars,  the  weavers  and  leather-cutters  to  the  rest.  Many 
of  these  in  the  northern  districts  are  actually  bond-slaves, 
having  hardly  ever  the  spirit  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
remedy  offered  by  our  courts,  and  descend  with  their  children 
from  generation  to  generation  as  the  value  of  an  old  purchase. 
They  hold  the  plough  for  the  Brahman  or  Chhattri  master, 
whose  pride  of  caste  forbids  him  to  touch  it,  and  live  with 
the  pigs,  less  unclean  than  themselves,  in  separate  quarters 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  village.  Always  on  the  verge  of 
starvation,  their  lean,  black,  and  ill-formed  figures,  their 
stupid  faces,  and  their  repulsively  filthy  habits  reflect  the 
wretched  destiny  which  condemns  them  to  be  lower  than 
the  beast  among  their  fellow-men,  and  yet  that  they  are  far 
from  incapable  of  improvement  is  proved  by  the  active  and 
useful  stable  servants  drawn  from  among  them,  who  receive 
good  pay  and  live  well  under  European  masters.  A  change 
of  religion  is  the  only  means  of  escape  open  to  them,  and  they 
have  little  reason  to  be  faithful  to  their  present  creed." 

It  is  this  absence  of  class  prejudices  which  constitutes  the 
real  strength  of  Islam  in  India,  and  enables  it  to  win  so  many 
converts  from  Hinduism. 

To  complete  this  survey  of  Islam  in  India,  some  account 
still  remains  to  be  given  of  the  spread  of  this  faith  in  Kashmir 
and  thence  beyond  the  borders  of  India  into  Tibet.  Of  all 
the  provinces  and  states  of  India  (with  the  exception  of  Sind) 
Kashmir  contains  the  largest  number  of  Muhammadans 
(namely  70  per  cent.)  in  proportion  to  the  whole  population; 
but  unfortunately  historical  facts  that  should  explain  the 
existence  in  this  state  of  so  many  Musalmans,  almost  entirely 
of  Hindu  or  Tibetan  origin,  are  very  scanty.  But  all  the 
evidence  leads  us  to  attribute  it  on  the  whole  to  a  long- 
continued  missionary  movement  inaugurated  and  carried 
out  mainly  by  faqirs  and  dervishes,  among  whom  were 
Isma'ilian  preachers  sent  from  Alamut.2 

1  Gazetteer  of  the  Province  of  Oudh,  vol.  i.  pp.  xxiii-xxiv. 

2  Khoja.  Vrttant,  p.  141. 


292  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

It  is  difficult  to  say  when  this  Islamising  influence  first 
made  itself  felt  in  the  country.  The  first  Muhammadan 
king  of  Kashmir,  Sadr  al-Din,1  is  said  to  have  owed  his 
conversion  to  a  certain  Darwesh  Bulbul  Shah  in  the  early 
part  of  the  fourteenth  century.  This  saint  was  the  only 
religious  teacher  who  could  satisfy  his  craving  for  religious 
truth  when,  dissatisfied  with  his  own  Hindu  faith,  he  looked 
for  a  more  acceptable  form  of  doctrine.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  same  century  (in  1388)  the  progress  of  Islam  was  most 
materially  furthered  by  the  advent  of  Sayyid  'AH  Hamada.ni, 
a  fugitive  from  his  native  city  of  Hamadan  in  Persia,  where 
he  had  incurred  the  wrath  of  Timur.  He  was  accompanied 
by  700  Sayyids,  who  established  hermitages  all  over  the 
country  and  by  their  influence  appear  to  have  assured  the 
acceptance  of  the  new  religion.  Their  advent  appears, 
however,  to  have  also  stirred  up  considerable  fanaticism,  as 
Sultan  Sikandar  (1393-1417)  acquired  the  name  of  Butshikan 
from  his  destruction  of  Hindu  idols  and  temples,  and  his 
prime  minister,  a  converted  Hindu,  set  on  foot  a  fierce  per- 
secution of  the  adherents  of  his  old  faith,  but  on  his  death 
toleration  was  again  made  the  rule  of  the  kingdom.2 
Towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  missionary, 
by  name  Mir  Shams  al-Din,  belonging  to  a  Shf  ah  sect,  came 
from  Traq,  and,  with  the  aid  of  his  disciples,  won  over  a 
large  number  of  converts  in  Kashmir. 

When  under  Akbar,  Kashmir  became  a  province  of  the 
Mughal  empire,  the  Muhammadan  influence  was  naturally 
strengthened  and  many  men  of  learning  came  into  the 
country.  In  the  reign  of  Aurangzeb,  the  Rajput  Raja  of 
Kishtwar  was  converted  by  the  miracles  of  a  certain  Sayyid 
Shah  Farid  al-Din  and  his  conversion  seems  to  have  been 
followed  by  that  of  the  majority  of  his  subjects,  and  along 
the  route  which  the  Mughal  emperors  took  on  their  pro- 
gresses into  Kashmir  we  still  find  Rajas  who  are  the  descen- 
dants of  Muhammadanised  Rajputs.3 

To  the  north  and  north-east  of  Kashmir,  the  provinces 
of  Baltistan  and  Ladakh  are  inhabited  by  a  mixed  Tibetan 

1  Or  Shams  al-Din,  according  to  another  account,  see  Muhammad 
Haydar,  p.  433  (n.  2).  2  Firishtah,  vol.  iv.  pp.  464,  469. 

3  F.  Drew  :  The  Jummoo  and  Kashmir  Territories,  pp.  58,  155.  (London, 
1875-) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   INDIA  293 

race,  among  whom  Islam  has  been  firmly  established  for 
several  centuries,  but  the  date  and  manner  of  its  introduction 
is  unknown.  The  Muhammadans  of  Baltistan  tell  of  four 
brothers  who  came  from  Khurasan  and  brought  about  a 
revival  of  the  faith,  but  appear  to  have  no  tradition  regarding 
the  earliest  propagandists.1  Up  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  Islam  appeared  to  be  making  progress, 
but  this  tendency  was  counteracted  by  the  encouragement 
which  Maharaja  Ranbir  Singh  gave  to  the  followers  of 
the  Buddhist  faith.  In  Ladakh  there  are  a  number  of 
half-castes,  called  Arghons,2  born  of  Tibetan  mothers  and 
Muhammadan  fathers,  traders  who  have  come  to  Leh  and 
persuaded  the  Tibetan  women  they  marry  to  accept  Islam. 
These  Arghons  are  all  Musalmans  and,  like  their  fathers, 
marry  Tibetan  wives ;  they  are  said  to  be  increasing  in  num- 
bers more  rapidly  than  the  pure  Tibetan  stock.3  Islam  has 
also  been  carried  into  Tibet  Proper  by  Kashmiri  merchants. 
Settlements  of  such  merchants  are  to  be  found  in  all  the 
chief  cities  of  Tibet ;  they  marry  Tibetan  wives,  who  often 
adopt  the  religion  of  their  husbands ;  and  there  are  now  said 
to  be  as  many  as  2000  Muhammadan  families  in  Lhasa.4 
Islam  has  made  its  way  into  Tibet  also  from  Yunnan,5  and 
at  Su-ching,  on  the  border  of  the  Sze-chwan  province  and 
Tibet,  converts  are  being  won  from  among  the  Tibetan 
inhabitants.6  Muhammadan  influences  are  also  said  to  have 
come  from  Persia 7  and  from  Turkestan.8 

1  Drew,  op.  cit.  p.  359. 

2  On  this  word  see  Yule's  Marco  Polo,  vol.  i.  p.  290. 

3  Ahmad  Shah  :  Four  years  in  Tibet,  pp.  45,  74.     (Benares,  1906.) 

4  Broomhall,  p.  206.  Tu  Wen-siu,  the  leader  of  the  Panthay  rebellion 
from  1856  to  1873,  who  for  sixteen  years  was  practically  Sultan  of  half 
the  province  of  Yunnan,  issued  a  proclamation  in  Lhasa  itself,  at  the  outset 
of  his  revolt,  in  order  to  gain  Muhammadan  recruits.     (Id.  p.  132.) 

5  Mission  d'Ollone,  pp.  207,  226,  233.  6  Broomhall,  p.  206. 

7  A.  Bastian  :  Die  Geschichte  der  Indochinesen,  p.  159.     (Leipzig,  1866.) 

8  R.  du  M.  M.,  tome  i,  p.  275.     (1907.) 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN    CHINA. 

Tradition  ascribes  to  Muhammad  the  saying,  "  Seek  for 
knowledge,  even  unto  China."  x  Though  there  is  no  histori- 
cal evidence  for  these  words  having  ever  been  uttered  by  the 
Prophet,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  name  of  this  country 
may  have  been  known  to  him,  for  commercial  relations 
between  Arabia  and  China  had  been  established  long  before 
his  birth.  It  was  through  Arabia,  in  great  measure,  that 
Syria  and  the  ports  of  the  Levant  received  the  produce  of 
the  East.  In  the  sixth  century,  there  was  a  considerable 
trade  between  China  and  Arabia  by  way  of  Ceylon,  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  the  commerce  between 
China,  Persia  and  Arabia  was  still  further  extended,  the  town 
of  Siraf  on  the  Persian  Gulf  being  the  chief  emporium  for 
the  Chinese  traders.  It  was  at  this  period,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  T'ang  dynasty  (618-907)  that  mention  is  first 
made  of  the  Arabs  in  the  Chinese  Annals ;  2  they  note  the 
rise  of  the  Muslim  power  in  Medina  and  briefly  describe  the 
religious  observances  of  the  new  faith. 

The  Annals  of  Kwangtung  thus  record  the  coming  of  the 
first  Muslims  into  China  : — "  At  the  beginning  of  the  T'ang 
dynasty  there  came  to  Canton  a  large  number  of  strangers, 
from  the  kingdoms  of  Annam,  Cambodia,  Medina  and  several 
other  countries.  These  strangers  worshipped  heaven  (i.  e. 
God)  and  had  neither  statue,  idol  nor  image  in  their  temples. 
The  kingdom  of  Medina  is  close  to  that  of  India,  and  it  is  in 
this  kingdom  that  the  religion  of  these  strangers,  which  is 
different  to  that  of  Buddha,  originated.  They  do  not  eat 
pork  or  drink  wine,  and  they  regard  as  unclean  the  flesh  of 
any  animal  not  killed  by  themselves.     They  are  nowadays 

1  Kanz  al-'Ummal,  vol.  v.  p.  202.  2  Bretschneider  (2),  p.  6. 

294 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  CHINA         295 

called  Hui  Hui.1  .  .  .  Having  asked  and  obtained  from  the 
emperor  permission  to  reside  in  Canton,  they  built  magnifi- 
cent houses  of  a  style  different  to  that  of  our  country.  They 
were  very  rich  and  obeyed  a  chief  chosen  by  themselves."  2 
Though  direct  historical  evidence  is  lacking,3  it  is  most 
probable  that  Islam  was  first  introduced  into  China  by 
merchants  who  followed  the  old-established  sea  route.  But 
the  earliest  record  we  can  trust  refers  to  diplomatic  relations 
carried  on  by  land,  through  Persia.  When  Yazdagird,  the 
last  Sasanid  king  of  Persia,  had  perished,  his  son,  Firuz, 
appealed  to  China  for  help  against  the  Arab  invaders ; 4  but 
the  emperor  replied  that  Persia  was  too  far  distant  for  him 
to  send  the  required  troops.  But  he  is  said  to  have  de- 
spatched an  ambassador  to  the  Arab  court  to  plead  the  cause 
of  the  fugitive  prince — probably  also  with  instructions  to 
ascertain  the  extent  and  power  of  the  new  kingdom  that  had 
arisen  in  the  West,  and  the  caliph  'Uthman  is  said  to  have  sent 
one  of  the  Arab  generals  to  accompany  the  Chinese  ambassa- 
dor on  his  return  in  651,  and  this  first  Muslim  envoy  was 
honourably  received  by  the  emperor.  In  the  reign  of  Walid 
(705-715),  the  famous  Arab  general,  Qutaybah  b.  Muslim, 
having  been  appointed  governor  of  Khurasan,  crossed  the 
Oxus  and  began  a  series  of  successful  campaigns,  in  which 
he  successively  subjugated  Bukhara,  Samarqand  and  other 
cities,  and  carried  his  conquests  up  to  the  eastern  frontier 
of  the  Chinese  empire.  In  713  he  sent  envoys  to  the  em- 
peror, who  (according  to  Arab  accounts)  dismissed  them  with 
valuable  presents.  A  few  years  later,  the  Chinese  Annals 
make  mention  of  an  ambassador,  named  Sulayman,  who 
came  from  the  caliph  Hisham  in  726  to  the  Emperor  Hsuan 
Tsung.  These  diplomatic  relations  between  the  Arab  and 
the  Chinese  empires  assumed  a  new  importance  at  the  close 
of  this  emperor's  reign,  when,  driven  from  his  throne  by  a 

1  On  the  origin  of  this  name,  see  Deveria,  p.  311;  Mission  d'Ollone, 
p.  420  sqq.  2  De  Thiersant,  vol.  i.  pp.  19-20. 

3  D'Ollone  gives  the  following  warning  as  to  the  uncertainty  of  our 
knowledge  of  Islam  in  China  :— "  Or  rien  n'est  moins  connu  que  1' Islam 
chinois.  On  ne  sait  exactement  ni  comment  il  s'est  propage  dans  l'Empire, 
ni  combien  d'adeptes  il  a  reunis,  ni  si  sa  doctrine  est  pure,  ni  quelle  est  son 
organisation,  ni  s'il  possede  des  relations  avec  le  reste  du  monde  musulman." 
(Mission  d'Ollone,  p.  1.)  The  references  to  China  in  Arabic  and  Persian 
writers  have  been  collected  by  Schefer,  "  Notice  sur  les  relations  des 
peuples  musulmans  avec  les  Chinois."  *  Chavannes,  p.  172. 


296  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

usurper,  he  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  son,  Su  Tsung  (a.d. 
756).  The  latter  sought  the  help  of  the  'Abbasid  caliph, 
al-Mansur,  who  responded  to  this  appeal  by  sending  a  body 
of  Arab  troops,  and  with  their  assistance  the  emperor 
succeeded  in  recovering  his  two  capitals,  Si-ngan-fu  and 
Ho-nan-fu,  from  the  rebels.  At  the  end  of  the  war,  these 
Arab  troops  did  not  return  to  their  own  country,  but  married 
and  settled  in  China.  Various  reasons  are  assigned  for  this 
action  on  their  part ;  one  account  represents  them  as  having 
returned  to  their  native  land  but,  being  refused  permission 
to  remain  on  the  ground  that  they  had  been  so  long  in  a 
land  where  pork  was  eaten,  they  went  back  again  to  China ; 
according  to  another  account  they  were  prepared  to  embark 
for  Arabia,  at  Canton,  when  they  were  taunted  with  having 
eaten  pork  during  their  campaign,  and  in  consequence  they 
refused  to  return  home  and  run  the  risk  of  similar  taunts 
from  their  own  people ;  when  the  governor  of  Canton  tried 
to  compel  them,  they  joined  with  the  Arab  and  Persian 
merchants,  their  co-religionists,  and  pillaged  the  principal 
commercial  houses  in  the  city ;  the  governor  saved  himself 
by  taking  refuge  on  the  city  wall,  and  was  only  able  to  return 
after  he  had  obtained  from  the  emperor  permission  for  these 
Arab  troops  to  remain  in  the  country;  houses  and  lands 
were  assigned  to  them  in  different  cities,  where  they  settled 
down  and  intermarried  with  the  women  of  the  country.1 

The  Chinese  Muhammadans  have  a  legend  that  their  faith 
was  first  preached  in  China  by  a  maternal  uncle  of  the 
Prophet,  and  his  reputed  tomb  at  Canton  is  highly  venerated 
by  them.  But  there  is  not  the  slightest  historical  base  for 
this  legend,  and  it  appears  to  be  of  late  growth.2  It 
doubtless  arose  from  a  desire  to  connect  the  history  of  the 
faith  in  their  own  land  as  closely  as  possible  with  apostolic 
times — a  fruitful  source  of  legends  in  countries  far  removed 
from  the  centres  of  Muslim  history.3  But  of  the  existence 
of  Muslims  in  China,  especially  of  merchants  in  the  port 

1  De  Thiersant,  vol.  i.  pp.  70-1. 

2  This  legend  has  been  exhaustively  discussed  by  Broomhall :  Islam  in 
China,  cap.  iv,  vii. 

3  Thus  the  people  of  Khotan  claim  that  Islam  was  first  brought  to  their 
land  by  J  a' far,  a  cousin  of  the  Prophet  (Grenard  :  Mission  Dutreuil  de 
Rhins,  t.  iii.  p.  2),  and  the  Chams  of  Cambodia  ascribe  their  conversion  to 
one  of  the  fathers-in-law  of  Muhammad.     (R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  ii.  p.  138.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   CHINA         297 

towns,  during  the  Tang  dynasty  there  is  clear  evidence. 
The  Chinese  annalist  of  this  period  (a.d.  713-742)  says  that 
"  the  barbarians  of  the  West  came  into  the  Middle  Kingdom 
in  crowds,  like  a  deluge,  from  a  distance  of  at  least  1000 
leagues  and  from  more  than  100  kingdoms,  bringing  as 
tribute  their  sacred  books,  which  were  received  and  de- 
posited in  the  hall  set  apart  for  translations  of  sacred  and 
canonical  books,  in  the  imperial  palace  :  from  this  period 
the  religious  doctrines  of  these  different  countries  were  thus 
diffused  and  openly  practised  in  the  empire  of  Tang."  x 
An  Arab  geographer,  writing  about  the  year  851,  describes 
these  settlements  and  the  mosques  which  these  merchants 
were  allowed  to  build  for  their  religious  exercises ; 2  he  states 
that  he  knew  of  no  Chinaman  having  embraced  Islam,  but 
as  he  makes  the  same  remark  of  the  people  of  India,  it  may 
be  that  he  was  as  ill-informed  in  the  one  case  as  the  other.3 
But  there  is  certainly  no  distinct  evidence  of  any  prosely- 
tising activity  on  the  part  of  the  Muslims  in  China,  and 
indeed  very  little  information  about  them  at  all  until  the 
period  of  Mongol  conquests,  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
These  conquests  resulted  in  a  vast  immigration  of  Musalmans 
of  various  nationalities,  Arabs,  Persians,  Turks  and  others 
into  the  Chinese  empire.4  Some  came  as  merchants, 
artisans,  soldiers  or  colonists,  others  were  brought  in  as 
prisoners  of  war.  A  large  number  of  them  settled  perma- 
nently in  the  country  and  developed  into  a  populous  and 
nourishing  community,  which  gradually  lost  its  original 
racial  peculiarities  through  intermarriage  with  Chinese 
women.  Several  Muhammadans  occupied  high  posts  under 
the  Mongol  rulers,  e.  g.  'Abd  al-Rahman,  who  in  1244  was 
appointed  head  of  the  Imperial  finances  and  allowed  to  farm 
the  taxes  imposed  upon  China,5  and  'Umar  Shams  al-Din, 
commonly  known  as  Sayyid  A  jail,  a  native  of  Bukhara,  to 

1  De  Thiersant,  vol.  i.  p.  153. 

2  Reinaud  :  Relation  des  Voyages  faits  par  les  Arabes  et  les  Persans  dans 
l'Inde  et  a  la  Chine,  i.  pp.  13,  64.     (Paris,  1845.)  3  Id.  p.  58. 

*  That  there  was  some  migration  westward  also  of  Chinese  into  the 
conquered  countries  of  Islam,  where  they  would  come  within  the  sphere 
of  its  religious  influence,  we  learn  from  the  diary  of  a  Chinese  monk  who 
travelled  through  Central  Asia  to  Persia  in  the  years  1221-4;  speaking  of 
Samarqand,  he  says,  "  Chinese  workmen  are  living  everywhere.  (Bret- 
schneider  (1),  vol.  i.  p.  78.)  6  Howorth,  vol.  1.  p.  161. 


298  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

whom  Qubilay  Khan,  on  his  accession  in  1259,  entrusted 
the  management  of  the  Imperial  finances;  he  was  subse- 
quently governor  of  Yunnan,  after  this  province  had  been 
conquered  and  added  to  the  Chinese  empire.1  Sayyid  Ajall 
died  in  1270,  leaving  behind  him  a  reputation  as  an  en- 
lightened and  upright  administrator;  he  built  Confucian 
temples  as  well  as  mosques  in  Yunnan  city.2 

The  descendants  of  Sayyid  Ajall  played  a  great  part  in  the 
establishing  of  Islam  in  China ;  it  was  his  grandson  who  in 
1335  obtained  from  the  emperor  the  recognition  of  Islam  as 
the  "  True  and  Pure  Religion  " — a  name  which  it  has  kept 
to  the  present  day, — and  another  descendant  of  Sayyid  Ajall 
was  authorised  by  the  emperor  in  1420  to  build  mosques  in 
the  capitals,  Si-ngan-fu  and  Nan-kin.3 

The  Chinese  historians  of  the  reign  of  Qubilay  Khan  make 
it  a  ground  of  complaint  against  this  monarch  that  he  did  not 
employ  Chinese  officials  in  place  of  the  immigrant  Turks  and 
Persians.4  The  exalted  position  occupied  by  Sayyid  Ajall 
and  the  facilities  of  communication  between  China  and  the 
West  established  by  Mongol  conquest,  attracted  a  number 
of  such  persons  into  the  north  of  China,  and  it  was  probably 
as  a  result  of  these  immigrations  that  those  scattered 
Muhammadan  communities  began  to  be  formed,  which  have 
grown  to  large  proportions  in  most  of  the  provinces  of  China. 
Marco  Polo,  who  enjoyed  the  favour  of  Qubilay  Khan  and 
lived  in  China  from  1275  to  1292,  notes  the  presence  of 
Muhammadans  in  various  parts  of  Yunnan.5  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourteenth  century,  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Talifu,  the  capital  of  Yunnan,  are  said  by  a  contemporary 
historian  to  have  been  Musalmans ; 6  and  Ibn  Batutah,  who 
visited  several  coast  towns  in  China  towards  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  speaks  of  the  hearty  welcome  he 
received  from  his  co-religionists,7  and  reports  that  "  In  every 
town  there  is  a  special  quarter  for  the  Muslims,  inhabited 
solely  by  them,  where  they  have  their  mosques;  they  are 
honoured  and  respected  by  the  Chinese."  8 

1  For  Chinese  biographies  of  Sayyid  Ajall,  see  R.  du  M.  M.,  viii.  p.  344, 
sqq.  and  xi.  p.  3  sqq. ;  Mission  d'Ollone,  p.  25  sqq.        2  Broomhall,  p.  127. 
3  Mission  d'Ollone,  pp.  435-6.  4  Howorth,  vol.  i.  p.  257. 

6  Marco  Polo,  vol.  i.  pp.  219,  274;    vol.  ii.  p.  66. 

6  Rashid  al-Din  (Yule's  Cathay,  p.  9). 

7  Vol.  iv.  pp.  270,  283.  8  Id.  p.  258. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHINA         299 

Up  to  this  period  the  Muhammadans  appear  to  have  been 
looked  upon  as  a  foreign  community  in  China,  but  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  Mongol  dynasty  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century  they  received  no  fresh  addition  to  their 
numbers  from  abroad,  in  consequence  of  the  policy  of 
isolation  which  the  Chinese  government  now  adopted ;  and 
being  thus  cut  off  from  communication  with  their  co- 
religionists in  other  countries,  they  tended,  in  most  parts  of 
the  empire,  gradually  to  become  merged  into  the  mass  of  the 
native  population,  through  their  marriages  with  Chinese 
women  and  their  adoption  of  Chinese  habits  and  manners. 
The  founder  of  the  new  Ming  dynasty,  the  emperor  Hung- 
wu,  extended  to  them  many  privileges,  and  their  flourishing 
condition  during  the  period  that  this  dynasty  lasted  (1368- 
1644)  is  shown  by  the  large  number  of  mosques  erected. 

The  emperors  of  this  dynasty  cultivated  friendly  relations 
with  the  Muhammadan  princes  on  their  western  frontier, 
and  there  was  a  frequent  interchange  of  embassies  between 
them  and  the  Timurid  princes.     One  of  these  is  of  interest 
in  the  missionary  history  of  Islam,  inasmuch  as  Shah  Rukh 
Bahadur  in  141 2  took  advantage  of  the  arrival  of  a  Chinese 
embassy  at  his  court  in  Samarqand,  to  include  in  his  answer 
an  invitation  to  the  emperor  to  embrace  Islam.     He  sent 
with  his  envoy,  who  accompanied  the  Chinese  ambassadors 
on  their  return,  two  letters,  the  first  of  which,  written  in 
Arabic,  was  to  the  following  effect : — "  In  the  name  of  God, 
the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate.     There  is  no  god  save  God : 
Muhammad  is  the  Apostle  of  God.     The  Apostle  of  God, 
Muhammad  (peace  be  on  him  !)  said  :  '  There  shall  not  cease 
to  be  in  my  church  a  people  abiding  in  the  commandments 
of  God ;  whosoever  fails  to  help  them  or  opposes  them,  shall 
never  prosper,  until  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  cometh.' 
When  the  Most  High  God  purposed  to  create  Adam  and  his 
race,  he  said  '  I  was  a  hidden  treasure,  but  it  was  my  pleasure 
to  become  known ;   I  therefore  created  man  that  I  might  be 
known  ' ;   It  is  manifest  from  hence  that  the  divine  purpose 
(great  is  His  power  and  exalted  is  His  word  !)  in  the  creation 
of  man  was  to  make  Himself  known  and  uplift  the  banners  of 
right  guidance  and  faith.     Wherefore  He  sent  His  Apostle 
with  guidance  and  the  religion  of  truth  that  it  might  prevail 


300  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

over  all  other  faiths,  though  the  polytheists  turn  away  from 
it,  that  he  might  make  known  the  laws  and  the  ordinances 
and  the  observances  of  what  is  lawful  and  unlawful,  and  He 
gave  him  the  holy  Qur'an  miraculously  that  thereby  he 
might  put  to  silence  the  unbelievers  and  stop  their  mouths 
when  they  discussed  and  disputed  with  him,  and  by  His 
perfect  grace  and  His  all-pervading  guidance  He  has  caused 
it  to  remain  even  unto  the  day  of  judgment.  By  His  power 
He  hath  established  in  all  ages  and  times  and  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  in  east  and  west,  and  in  China,  a  mighty  monarch, 
lord  of  great  armies  and  authority,  to  administer  justice  and 
mercy  and  spread  the  wings  of  peace  and  security  over  the 
heads  of  men;  to  enjoin  upon  them  righteousness  and  warn 
them  against  evil  and  disobedience  and  lift  up  among  them 
the  banners  of  the  noble  religion ;  and  he  drives  away  idola- 
try and  infidelity  from  among  them  through  belief  in  the 
unity  of  God.  The  Most  High  God  thus  disposeth  our  hearts 
by  His  past  mercies  and  His  ensuing  grace  to  strive  for  the 
stablishing  of  the  laws  of  pure  religion  and  the  continuance 
of  the  ordinances  of  the  shining  path.  He  also  bids  us  ad- 
minister justice  to  our  subjects  in  all  suits  and  cases  in 
accordance  with  the  religion  of  the  Prophet  and  the  ordin- 
ances of  the  Chosen  One,  and  build  mosques  and  colleges  and 
monasteries  and  hermitages  and  places  of  worship,  that  the 
teaching  of  the  sciences  and  the  schools  of  learning  may  not 
cease  nor  the  memorials  and  injunctions  of  religion  be  swept 
away.  Seeing  that  the  continuance  of  worldly  prosperity 
and  dominion,  and  the  permanence  of  authority  and  rule 
depend  upon  the  assistance  given  to  truth  and  righteousness 
and  the  extirpation  of  the  evils  caused  by  idolatry  and  un- 
belief from  the  earth,  in  the  expectation  of  blessing  and 
reward,  we,  therefore,  hope  that  your  Majesty  and  the 
nobles  of  your  realm  will  agree  with  us  in  these  matters  and 
join  us  in  strengthening  the  foundations  of  the  established 
law."  The  other  letter,  written  in  Persian,  makes  a  more 
direct  appeal,  without  the  rhetorical  embellishments  of  the 
Arabic  : — "  The  Most  High  God,  having  in  the  depth  of 
His  wisdom  and  the  perfection  of  His  power  created  Adam 
(peace  be  upon  him  !),  made  some  of  his  sons  prophets  and 
apostles  and  sent  them  among  men  to  summon  them  to  the 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   CHINA         301 

truth.  To  certain  of  these  prophets,  such  as  Abraham,  Moses, 
David  and  Muhammad  (peace  be  upon  them  !)  He  gave  a 
book  and  taught  a  law,  and  He  bade  the  people  of  their  time 
follow  the  law  and  the  religion  of  each  of  them.  All  these 
apostles  invited  men  to  faith  in  the  unity  and  to  the  worship 
of  God  and  forbade  the  adoration  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars, 
of  kings  and  idols ;  and  though  each  one  of  these  apostles 
had  a  separate  law,  yet  they  were  all  agreed  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  unity  of  the  Most  High  God.  At  length,  when  the 
apostolic  and  prophetic  office  devolved  on  the  Apostle 
Muhammad  Mustafg.  (the  peace  and  blessing  of  God  be  upon 
him  !)  all  other  systems  of  law  were  abrogated.  He  was  the 
apostle  and  the  prophet  of  the  latter  age,  and  it  behoves 
the  whole  world — lords  and  kings  and  ministers,  rich  and 
poor,  small  and  great, — to  observe  his  law  and  forsake  all 
past  creeds  and  laws.  This  is  the  true  and  perfect  faith  and 
is  called  Islam.  Some  years  ago,  Chingiz  Khan  took  up 
arms  and  sent  his  sons  into  various  countries  and  king- 
doms— Juji  Khan  to  the  confines  of  Saray,  Qrim  and 
Dasht  Qafchaq,  where  some  monarchs,  such  as  Uzbek 
Khan,  Cham  Khan  and  Urus  Khan,  became  Musalmans  and 
observed  the  law  of  Muhammad  (peace  be  upon  him  !). 
Hulagu  Khan  was  set  over  Khurasan,  'Iraq  and  the  neigh- 
bouring countries,  and  some  of  his  sons  who  succeeded 
him  received  into  their  hearts  the  light  of  the  law  of 
Muhammad  (peace  be  upon  him !),  and  in  like  manner 
became  Musalmans,  and  honoured  with  the  blessedness 
of  Islam  passed  into  the  other  world,  such  as  the  truthful 
king,  Ghazan,  and  Uljaytu  Sultan  and  the  fortunate  king, 
Abu  Sa'Id  Bahadur,  until  my  honoured  father,  Amir  Timur 
Gurgan,  succeeded  to  the  throne.  He  too  observed  the  law 
of  Muhammad  (peace  be  upon  him  !)  in  all  the  countries  under 
his  rule,  and  throughout  his  reign  the  followers  of  the  faith 
of  Islam  enjoyed  complete  prosperity.  Now  that  by  the 
goodness  and  favour  of  God  this  Kingdom  of  Khurasan, 
'Iraq,  Ma-wara'-al-nahr,  etc.,  has  passed  into  my  hands,  the 
administration  is  carried  on  throughout  the  whole  kingdom 
in  accordance  with  the  pure  law  of  the  Prophet ;  righteous- 
ness is  enjoined  and  wrong  forbidden,  and  the  Yarghii 
and  the  institutes  of  Chingiz  Khan  have  been  abolished. 


302  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

Since,  then,  it  is  sure  and  certain  that  salvation  and 
deliverance  in  the  day  of  judgment,  and  sovereignty  and 
felicity  in  the  present  world,  depend  upon  true  faith  and 
Islam,  and  the  favour  of  the  Most  High  God,  it  is  incumbent 
upon  us  to  treat  our  subjects  with  justice  and  equity.  I 
hope  that  by  the  bounty  and  benevolence  of  God  you  too 
will  observe  the  law  of  Muhammad,  the  Apostle  of  God 
(peace  be  upon  him  !)  and  strengthen  the  religion  of  Islam, 
so  that  you  may  exchange  the  transitory  sovereignty  of 
this  world  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  to  come."  x 

It  is  not  improbable  that  these  letters  gave  rise  to  the 
later  legend  of  one  of  the  Chinese  emperors  having  become  a 
convert  to  Islam.2  This  legend  is  referred  to,  among  others, 
by  a  Muhammadan  merchant,  Sayyid  'AH  Akbar,  who  spent 
some  years  in  Peking  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century;  he  speaks  of  the  large 
number  of  Musalmans  who  had  settled  in  China;  in  the 
city  of  Kenjanfu  there  were  as  many  as  30,000  Muslim 
families ;  they  paid  no  taxes  and  enjoyed  the  favour  of  the 
emperor,  who  gave  them  grants  of  land;  they  enjoyed  com- 
plete toleration  for  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  which  was 
favourably  viewed  by  the  Chinese,  and  conversions  were 
freely  permitted ;  in  the  capital  itself  there  were  four  great 
mosques  and  about  ninety  more  in  other  provinces  of  the 
empire, — all  erected  at  the  cost  of  the  emperor.3 

Up  to  the  establishment  of  the  Manchu  dynasty  in  1644 
there  is  no  record  of  any  Muhammadan  uprising,  and  the 
followers  of  Islam  appear  to  have  been  entirely  content  with 
the  religious  liberty  they  enjoyed ;  but  difficulties  arose  soon 
after  the  advent  of  the  new  ruling  power,  and  an  insurrection 
in  the  province  of  Kansu  in  1648  was  the  first  occasion  on 
which  any  Muhammadans  rose  in  arms  against  the  Chinese 
government,  though  it  was  not  until  the  nineteenth  century 
that  any  such  revolt  entailed  very  disastrous  consequences, 
or  seriously  interrupted  the  amicable  relations  that  had 
subsisted  from  the  beginning  between  the  Chinese  Muslims 

1  'Abd  al-Razzaq  al-Samarqandi :  Matla'  al-sa'dayn,  foil.  60-1. 
(Blochet,  pp.  249-52.) 

8  Zenker,  pp.  798-9.  Melanges  Orientaux,  p.  65.  (Publications  de 
l'Ecole  des  Langues  Orientales  Vivantes,  Ser.  ii.  t.  9.)      (Paris,  1883.) 

3  Schefer,  pp.  29-30.     Zenker,  p.  796. 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   CHINA         303 

and  their  rulers.     The  official  view  of  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment of  these  relations  is  set  forth  in  an  edict  published 
by  the  emperor  Yung  Chen  in  1731  : — "  In  every  province 
of    the    empire,     for    many    centuries    past,    have    been 
found  a  large  number  of   Muhammadans  who  form   part 
of  the  people  whom  I  regard  as  my  own  children  just  as 
I  do  my  other  subjects.     I  make  no  distinction  between 
them    and    those   who    do    not    belong    to   their   religion. 
I   have   received   from   certain   officials   secret   complaints 
against  the  Muhammadans  on  the  ground  that  their  religion 
differs  from  that  of  the  other  Chinese,  that  they  do  not  speak 
the  same  language,  and  wear  a  different  dress  to  the  rest  of 
the  people.     They  are  accused  of  disobedience,  haughtiness, 
and  rebellious  feelings,  and  I  have  been  asked  to  employ 
severe  measures  against  them.     After  examining  these  com- 
plaints and  accusations,  I  have  discovered  that  there  is  no 
foundation  for  them.     In  fact,  the  religion  followed  by  the 
Musalmans  is  that  of  their  ancestors ;    it  is  true  their  lan- 
guage is  not  the  same  as  that  of  the  rest  of  the  Chinese, 
but  what  a  multitude  of  different  dialects  there  are  in  China. 
As  to  their  temples,  dress  and  manner  of  writing,  which 
differ  from  those  of  the  other  Chinese— these  are  matters 
of  absolutely  no  importance.     These  are  mere  matters  of 
custom.     They  bear  as  good  a  character  as  my  other  sub- 
jects, and  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  they  intend  to  rebel. 
It  is  my  wish,  therefore,  that  they  should  be  left  in  the  free 
exercise  of  their  religion,  whose  object  is  to  teach  men  the 
observance  of  a  moral  life,  and  the  fulfilment  of  social  and 
civil  duties.     This  religion  respects  the  fundamental  basis  of 
Government,  and  what  more  can  be  asked  for  ?     If  then  the 
Muhammadans  continue  to  conduct  themselves  as  good  and 
loyal  subjects,  my  favour  will  be  extended  towards  them  just 
as  much  as  towards  my  other  children.     From  among  them 
have  come  many  civil  and  military  officers,  who  have  risen 
to  the  very  highest  ranks.     This  is  the  best  proof  that  they 
have  adopted  our  habits  and  customs,  and  have  learned  to 
conform  themselves  to  the  precepts  of  our  sacred  books. 
They  pass  their  examinations  in  literature  just  like  every  one 
else,  and  perform  the  sacrifices  enjoined  by  law.     In  a  word, 
they  are  true  members  of  the  great  Chinese  family  and 


304  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

endeavour  always  to  fulfil  their  religious,  civil  and  political 
duties.  When  the  magistrates  have  a  civil  case  brought 
before  them,  they  should  not  concern  themselves  with  the 
religion  of  the  litigants.  There  is  but  one  single  law  for  all 
my  subjects.  Those  who  do  good  shall  be  rewarded,  and 
those  who  do  evil  shall  be  punished."  1 

About  thirty  years  later,  his  successor,  the  Emperor  K'ien 
Lung,  showed  distinguished  marks  of  his  favour  towards  the 
Muhammadans  by  ennobling  two  Turk!  Begs  who  had 
materially  helped  in  suppressing  a  revolt  in  the  north-west 
and  Kashgar,  and  building  palaces  for  them  in  Peking ;  he  also 
erected  a  mosque  for  the  use  of  the  Turk!  Begs  who  visited 
the  Imperial  court  and  for  the  prisoners  of  war  who  had  been 
brought  to  the  capital  from  Kashgar.  Among  these  prisoners 
was  a  beautiful  girl  who  became  a  favourite  concubine  of 
the  emperor,  and  it  is  stated  that  for  love  of  her  he  built 
this  mosque  immediately  opposite  his  own  palace  and  erected 
a  pavilion  within  the  palace  grounds,  from  which  the  concu- 
bine could  watch  her  fellow-countrymen  at  prayer  and  could 
join  in  their  devotions.  This  mosque  was  built  in  the  years 
1 763-1 764  and  contains  an  inscription  in  four  languages,  the 
Chinese  text  of  which  was  written  by  the  emperor  himself.2 

After  crushing  the  revolt  in  Zungaria,  this  same  emperor 
K'ien  Lung,  in  1770  transported  thither  from  other  parts  of 
China  ten  thousand  military  colonists,  who  were  followed  by 
their  families  and  other  persons,  to  re-people  the  country, 
and  they  are  all  said  to  have  embraced  the  religion  of 
the  surrounding  Muhammadan  population.3  Whether  such 
mass  conversions  occurred  in  other  parts  of  the  empire  also, 
we  have  no  means  of  telling,  but  the  existence  of  a  consider- 
able Muhammadan  population  in  every  province  of  China 
can  hardly  be  explained  merely  by  reference  to  foreign  immi- 
gration and  the  natural  growth  of  population,4  though  the 
numbers  are  larger  in  those  provinces  in  which  foreign 

1  De  Thiersant,  tome  i.  pp.  154-6. 

2  Broomhall,  p.  92  sqq.  Deveria  :  Musulmans  et  Manicheens  chinois. 
(J.  A.  9me  Ser.,  tome  x.  p.  447  sqq.) 

3  De  Thiersant,  tome  i.  pp.  163-4. 

4  The  Muhammadans  are  said  to  be  more  prolific  than  the  ordinary 
Chinese,  and  the  Chinese  census,  which  counts  according  to  families, 
estimates  six  for  a  Muhammadan  family  and  five  for  the  ordinary  Chinese. 
(Broomhall,  pp.  197,  203.) 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  CHINA         305 

Muhammadans  have  settled.1  It  is  unlikely  that  the 
Muhammadans  in  China  during  the  many  centuries  of  their 
residence  in  this  country,  in  the  enjoyment  of  religious  free- 
dom and  the  liberal  patronage  of  several  of  the  emperors, 
should  have  been  entirely  devoid  of  that  proselytising  zeal 
which  modern  observers  have  noted  in  their  descendants  at 
the  present  day.2  To  such  direct  proselytising  efforts  must 
have  been  due  the  conversion  of  Chinese  Jews  to  Islam; 
their  establishment  in  this  country  dates  from  an  early 
period,  they  held  employments  under  the  Government  and 
were  in  possession  of  large  estates ;  but  by  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  a  great  part  of  them  had  been  converted 
to  Islam.3  Such  propaganda  must  have  been  quite  quiet 
and  unobtrusive,  and  indeed  more  public  methods  might 
have  excited  suspicions  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  as 
is  shown  by  an  interesting  report  which  was  sent  to  the 
Emperor  K'ien  Lung  in  1783  by  a  governor  of  the  province 
of  Khwang-Se.  It  runs  as  follows  :  "  I  have  the  honour 
respectfully  to  inform  your  Majesty  that  an  adventurer 
named  Han-Fo-Yun,  of  the  province  of  Khwang-Se,  has 
been  arrested  on  a  charge  of  vagrancy.  This  adventurer 
when  interrogated  as  to  his  occupation,  confessed  that  for 
the  last  ten  years  he  had  been  travelling  through  the  different 
provinces  of  the  Empire  in  order  to  obtain  information  about 
his  religion.  In  one  of  his  boxes  were  found  thirty  books, 
some  of  which  had  been  written  by  himself,  while  others 
were  in  a  language  that  no  one  here  understands.  These 
books  praise  in  an  extravagant  and  ridiculous  manner  a 
Western  king,  called  Muhammad.  The  above-mentioned 
Han-Fo-Yun,  when  put  to  the  torture,  at  last  confessed  that 
the  real  object  of  his  journey  was  to  propagate  the  false 
religion  taught  in  these  books,  and  that  he  remained  in  the 
province  of  Shen-Si  for  a  longer  time  than  anywhere  else. 
I  have  examined  these  books  myself.  Some  are  certainly 
written  in  a  foreign  language ;  for  I  have  not  been  able  to 
understand  them  :    the  others  that  are  written  in  Chinese 

1  Broomhall,  in  chap.  xii.  of  his  Islam  in  China,  gives  the  total  as  between 
five  and  ten  millions.     D'Ollone  puts  it  as  low  as  four  millions  (p.  430). 

2  Vide  infra,  pp.  309-310.  , 

3  Clark  Abel:  Narrative  of  a  journey  in  the  interior  of  China,  p.  301. 

(London,  1818.) 

x 


306  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

are  very  bad,  I  may  add,  even  ridiculous  on  account  of  the 
exaggerated  praise  given  in  them  to  persons  who  certainly 
do  not  deserve  it,  because  I  have  never  even  heard  of 
them.  Perhaps  the  above-mentioned  Han-Fo-Yun  is  a  rebel 
from  Kan-Su.  His  conduct  is  certainly  suspicious,  for  what 
was  he  going  to  do  in  the  provinces  through  which  he  has 
been  travelling  for  the  last  ten  years  ?  I  intend  to  make  a 
serious  inquiry  into  the  matter.  Meanwhile,  I  would  request 
your  Majesty  to  order  the  stereotyped  plates,  that  are  in 
the  possession  of  his  family,  to  be  burnt,  and  the  engravers 
to  be  arrested,  as  well  as  the  authors  of  the  books,  which  I 
have  sent  to  your  Majesty  desiring  to  know  your  pleasure  in 
the  matter."  x 

This  report  bears  testimony  to  the  activity  of  at  least  one 
Muhammadan  missionary  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
the  growth  of  Islam,  which  the  Jesuit  missionaries  2  noted  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  was  probably  not  so  little  connected 
with  direct  proselytism  as  some  of  them  supposed.  Du  Halde, 
in  one  of  the  few  passages  he  devotes  to  the  Muhammadans 
in  his  great  work,3  attributes  the  increase  in  their  numbers 
largely  to  their  habit  of  purchasing  children  in  times  of 
famine.  "  The  Mahometans  have  been  settled  for  more 
than  six  hundred  years  in  various  provinces,  where  they  live 
quite  quietly,  because  they  do  not  make  any  great  efforts  to 
spread  their  doctrines  and  gain  proselytes,  and  because  in 
former  times  they  only  increased  in  numbers  by  the  alliances 
and  marriages  they  contracted.  But  for  several  years  past 
they  have  continued  to  make  very  considerable  progress  by 
means  of  their  wealth.  They  buy  up  heathen  children  every- 
where ;  and  the  parents,  being  often  unable  to  provide  them 
with  food,  have  no  scruples  in  selling  them.  During  a 
famine  that  devastated  the  Province  of  Chantong,  they 
bought  more  than  10,000  of  them.  They  marry  them,  and 
either  purchase  or  build  for  them  separate  quarters  in  a 
town,  or  even  whole  villages;    gradually  in  several  places 

1  De  Thiersant,  tome  ii.  pp.  361-3. 

2  One  missionary,  writing  from  Peking  in  1721,  says,  "  Le  secte  des 
Mahometans  s'etend  de  plus  en  plus."  (Lettres  edifiantes  et  curieuses, 
tome  xix.  p.  140.) 

3  J.  B.  du  Halde  :  Description  geographique,  historique,  chronologique, 
politique  et  physique  de  l'Empire  de  la  Chine,  tome  iii.  p.  64.     (Paris,  1735.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHINA         307 

they  gain  such  influence  that  they  do  not  let  any  one  live 
among  them  who  does  not  go  to  the  mosque.  By  such 
means  they  have  multiplied  exceedingly  during  the  last 
century." 

Similarly,  in  the  famine  that  devastated  the  province  of 
Kwangtung  in  1790,  as  many  as  ten  thousand  children  are 
said  to  have  been  purchased  by  the  Muhammadans  from 
parents  who,  too  poor  to  support  them,  were  willing  to  part 
with  them  to  save  them  from  starvation;  these  were  all 
brought  up  in  the  faith  of  Islam.1  A  Chinese  Musalman, 
from  Yunnan,  named  Sayyid  Sulayman,  who  visited  Cairo 
in  1894  and  was  there  interviewed  by  the  representative  of 
an  Arabic  journal,2  declared  that  the  number  of  accessions 
to  Islam  gained  in  this  way  every  year  was  beyond  counting. 
Similar  testimony  is  given  by  M.  d'Ollone,  who  reports  that 
this  practice  of  buying  children  in  times  of  famine  prevails 
among  the  Muhammadans  throughout  the  whole  of  China 
to  the  present  day;  in  the  same  way,  they  purchased  the 
children  of  Christian  parents  who  were  massacred  by  the 
Boxers  in  1900,  and  brought  them  up  as  Musalmans.3 

The  Muhammadans  in  China  tend  to  live  together  in 
separate  villages  and  towns  or  to  form  separate  Muhammadan 
quarters  in  the  towns,  where  they  will  not  allow  any  person 
to  dwell  among  them  who  does  not  go  to  the  mosque.4 
Though  they  thus  in  some  measure  hold  themselves  apart, 
they  are  careful  to  avoid  the  open  exhibition  of  any  specially 
distinguishing  features  of  the  religious  observances  of  their 
faith,  which  may  offend  their  neighbours,  and  they  have 
been  careful  to  make  concessions  to  the  prejudices  of  their 
Chinese  fellow-countrymen.  In  their  ordinary  life  they  are 
completely  in  touch  with  the  customs  and  habits  that  prevail 
around  them ;  they  wear  the  pigtail  and  the  ordinary  dress 
of  the  Chinese,  and  put  on  a  turban,  as  a  rule,  only  in  the 
mosque.  To  avoid  offending  against  a  superstitious  pre- 
judice on  the  part  of  the  Chinese,  they  also  refrain  from 
building  tall  minarets,  wherever  they  build  them  at  all.5 
But  for  the  most  part,  their  mosques  conform  to  the  Chinese 

1  Anderson,  p.  151.     Grosier,  tome  iv.  p.  507. 

2  Thamarat  al-Funiin,  17th  Shawwal,  p.  3-     (Bayrut,  a.h.  131  i.) 

3  Mission  d'Ollone,  p.  279.     R.  du  M.M.,  tome  ix.  pp.  577.  578' 

4  Broomhall,  p.  226.     Grosier,  tome  iv.  p.  508.  6  Vasil'ev,  p.  15. 


308  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

type  of  architecture,  often  with  nothing  to  distinguish  them 
from  an  ordinary  temple  or  dwelling.1  Every  mosque  is 
obliged  by  law  to  have  a  tablet  to  the  emperor,  with  the 
inscription  on  it,  "  The  emperor,  the  immortal,  may  he 
live  for  ever,"  and  the  Muhammadans  prostrate  themselves 
before  it  in  accordance  with  the  regular  Chinese  custom, 
though  with  various  expedients  to  satisfy  their  consciences 
and  avoid  the  imputation  of  idolatry.2  Even  in  Chinese 
Tartary,  where  the  special  privilege  is  allowed  to  the  Musal- 
man  soldiers,  of  remaining  unmixed,  and  of  forming  a 
separate  body,  the  higher  Muhammadan  officials  wear 
the  dress  prescribed  to  their  rank,  long  moustaches  and  the 
pigtail,  and  on  holidays  they  perform  the  usual  homage 
demanded  from  officials,  to  a  portrait  of  the  emperor,  by 
touching  the  ground  three  times  with  their  forehead.3 
Similarly  all  Muhammadan  mandarins  and  other  officials 
in  other  provinces  perform  the  rites  prescribed  to  their 
official  position,  in  the  temples  of  Confucius  on  festival  days ; 
in  fact  every  precaution  is  taken  by  the  Muslims  to  prevent 
their  faith  from  appearing  to  be  in  opposition  to  the  state 
religion,  and  hereby  they  have  succeeded  in  avoiding  the 
odium  with  which  the  adherents  of  foreign  religions,  such 
as  Judaism  and  Christianity  are  regarded.  They  even 
represent  their  religion  to  their  Chinese  fellow-countrymen 
as  being  in  agreement  with  the  teachings  of  Confucius,  with 
only  this  difference,  that  they  follow  the  traditions  of  their 
ancestors  with  regard  to  marriages,  funerals,  the  prohibition 
of  pork,  wine,  tobacco,  and  games  of  chance,  and  the  washing 
of  the  hands  before  meals.4  Similarly  the  writings  of  the 
Chinese  Muhammadans  treat  the  works  of  Confucius  and 
other  Chinese  classics  with  great  respect,  and  where  possible, 
point  out  the  harmony  between  the  teachings  contained 
therein  and  the  doctrines  of  Islam.5 

The  Chinese  government,  in  its  turn,  has  always  given  to 
its  Muhammadan  subjects  (except  when  in  revolt)  the  same 
privileges  and  advantages  as  are  enjoyed  by  the  rest  of  the 
population.     No  office  of  state  is  closed  to  them;    and  as 

1  Broomhall,  p.  237.  2  Id.  pp.  186,  228. 

3  Arminius  Vambery  :    Travels  in  Central  Asia,  p.  404.     (London,  1864.) 

4  Vasil'ev,  p.  16.  6  De  Thiersant,  tome  ii.  pp.  367,  372. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   CHINA         309 

governors  of  provinces,  generals,  magistrates  and  ministers 
of  state  they  enjoy  the  confidence  and  respect  both  of  the 
rulers  and  the  people.  Not  only  do  Muhammadan  names 
appear  in  the  Chinese  annals  as  those  of  famous  officers  of 
state,  whether  military  or  civil,  but  they  have  also  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  the  mechanical  arts  and  in  sciences 
such  as  mathematics  and  astronomy.1 

The  Chinese  Muhammadans  are  also  said  to  be  keen  men 
of  business  and  successful  traders ;  they  monopolise  the  beef 
trade  and  carry  on  other  trades  with  great  success.2  They 
are  thus  in  touch  with  every  section  of  the  national  life  and 
have  every  opportunity  for  carrying  on  a  propaganda,  but 
the  few  Christian  missionaries  who  have  concerned  them- 
selves with  this  matter  are  of  opinion  that  they  are  not 
animated  with  any  particular  proselytising  zeal.3  Still,  many 
recent  converts  are  to  be  met  with,  and  the  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  Chinese  Muslims  can  cite  the  name  of  the  particu- 
lar ancestor  who  first  embraced  Islam  points  to  a  continuous 
process  of  conversion.4  Apparently  the  Muslims  are  not 
allowed  to  preach  their  faith  in  the  streets,  as  Protestant 
missionaries  do,5  but  (as  we  have  seen  above) 6  they  do  not 
fail  to  make  use  of  such  opportunities  as  present  themselves 
for  adding  to  the  number  of  their  sect.  One  of  their  religious 
text-books,  "  A  Guide  to  the  Rites  of  the  True  Religion  " 
(published  in  Canton  in  1668),  commends  the  work  of  prose- 
lytising and  makes  reference  to  such  as  may  have  recently 
become  converts  from  among  the  heathen.7  The  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  Islam  are  taught  to  the  new  converts 
by  means  of  metrical  primers,8  and  to  the  influence  of  the 
religious  books  of  the  Chinese  Muslims,  Sayyid  Sulayman 
attributes  many  of  the  conversions  made  in  recent  years.9 
The  Muslim  seminary  at  Hochow  in  Kansu  is  said  to  train 
theological  students  who  return  to  their  several  provinces, 
at  the  completion  of  their  studies,  to  promulgate  their  faith 
there,10  and  in  upwards  of  ten  provinces  centres  are  said  to 

1  De  Thiersant,  tome  i.  p.  247.       Thamarat  al-Funun,  28th  Sha'ban,  p.  3. 

2  Broomhall,  p.  224.  3  Du  Halde,  loc.  cit.     Broomhall,  p.  282, 
4  Mission  d'Ollone,  pp.  210,  431.  5  Broomhall,  pp.  274,  282. 

6  p.  307.  7  Broomhall,  pp.  231-2. 

8  W.  J.  Smith,  p.  175.     Mission  d'Ollone,  p.  407  sqq. 

9  Thamarat  al-Funun,  loc.  cit.  10  Broomhall,  p.  240, 


310  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

have  been  started  where  mullas  are  to  be  trained  for  Muslim 
propaganda.1  Military  officers  convert  many  of  the  soldiers 
serving  under  them,  to  Islam,  and  Muslim  mandarins  take 
advantage  of  the  authority  they  enjoy,  to  win  converts, 
but  as  they  are  frequently  transferred  from  one  place  to 
another,  they  are  not  able  to  exercise  so  much  influence  as 
Muslim  military  officers.2  Conversions  may  also  occasion- 
ally occur,  which  are  not  the  result  of  a  direct  propagandist 
appeal,  e.  g.  a  Turkish  traveller  who  visited  Peking  in  1895 
reported  that  he  found  thirty  mosques  there,  among  them 
one  that  had  originally  been  a  temple;  this  had  been  the 
family  temple  of  a  wealthy  Chinaman,  whose  life  had  been 
saved  during  the  Boxer  insurrection  by  the  Mufti  Wa- 
Ahonad  ('Abd  al-Rahman) ;  as  a  token  of  his  gratitude,  he 
embraced  the  faith  of  his  deliverer.3 

Turkish  and  other  Muslim  missionaries  have  in  recent 
years  been  visiting  China  and  endeavouring  to  stir  up  among 
the  Chinese  Muslims  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  their 
faith  and  to  awaken  their  zeal,  but  their  efforts  seem  so  far 
to  have  borne  but  little  fruit.4 

In  1867  a  Russian  writer,5  in  a  remarkable  work  on  Islam 
in  China,  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  destined  to 
become  the  national  faith  of  the  Chinese  empire  and  thereby 
entirely  change  the  political  conditions  of  the  Eastern  world. 
Nearly  half  a  century  has  elapsed  since  this  note  of  alarm 
was  sounded,  but  nothing  has  occurred  since  to  verify  these 
prognostications.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  appear  that 
Islam  has  been  losing  rather  than  gaining  ground  during  the 
last  century,  since  the  wholesale  massacres  that  accompanied 
the  suppression  of  the  Panthay  risings  in  Yunnan  from  1855 
to  1873  and  the  Tungan  rebellion  in  Shen-si  and  Kan-su  in 
1864-1877  and  1895-1896,  reduced  the  Muhammadan  popula- 
tion by  millions.6  The  establishment  of  the  new  Republic  has 
given  to  the  Chinese  Muslims  a  freedom  of  activity  unknown 
under  any  preceding  government,  but  it  is  too  early  yet  to 
discover  how  far  they  are  likely  to  avail  themselves  of  the 

1  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  vol.  xxv.  p.  786  (1912). 

2  Mission  d'Ollone,  p.  431.  3  R.  du  M.  M.,  iii.  p.  124  (1907). 
4  Broomhall,  pp.  242,  286,  292  sqq.         6  Vasil'ev,  pp.  3,  5,  14,  17. 

6  For  a  longer  list  of  Muhammadan  insurrections,  see  Mission  d'Ollone, 
p.  436> 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   CHINA         311 

opportunities  offered  by  the  altered  conditions  of  life.  The 
proselytism  that  still  goes  on,  restricted  as  its  sphere  may  be, 
indicates  a  still  cherished  hope  of  expansion.  Though  four 
centuries  have  elapsed  since  a  Muslim  traveller *  in  China 
could  discuss  the  possibility  of  the  conversion  of  the  emperor 
being  followed  by  that  of  his  subjects,  it  was  still  possible  for 
a  Chinese  Muslim  of  the  present  generation  to  state  that  his 
co-religionists  in  that  country  looked  forward  with  confidence 
to  the  day  when  Islam  would  be  triumphant  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Chinese  empire.2 

1  Sayyid  'All  Akbar  :  Khitay  Namah,  p.  83.  "If  the  emperor  of  China 
embraces  Islam,  his  subjects  must  inevitably  become  Muslims  too,  because 
they  all  worship  him  to  such  an  extent  that  they  accept  whatever  he  says, 
and  when  that  light  coming  from  the  West  grows  in  strength,  the  un- 
believers of  the  East  will  come  flocking  into  Islam  without  showing  any 
contention,  because  they  are  free  from  all  fanaticism  in  matters  of  religion." 

2  Thamarat  al-Funiin,  26th  Shawwal,  p.  3.     (a.h.  131 1.) 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   SPREAD    OF   ISLAM    IN   AFRICA. 

The  history  of  Islam  in  Africa,  covering  as  it  does  a  period 
of  well-nigh  thirteen  centuries  and  embracing  two-thirds  of 
this  vast  continent,  with  its  numerous  and  diverse  tribes 
and  races,  presents  especial  difficulties  in  the  way  of  system- 
atic treatment,  as  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  simultaneous 
account  in  chronological  order  of  the  spread  of  this  faith  in 
all  the  different  parts  of  the  continent.  Its  relations  to  the 
Christian  Churches  of  Egypt  and  the  rest  of  North  Africa, 
of  Nubia  and  Abyssinia  have  already  been  dealt  with  in  a 
former  chapter;  in  the  present  chapter  it  is  proposed  to 
trace  its  progress  first  among  the  heathen  population  of 
North  Africa,  then  throughout  the  Sudan  and  along  the 
West  coast,  and  lastly  along  the  East  coast  and  in  Cape 
Colony.1 

The  information  we  possess  of  the  spread  of  Islam  among 
the  heathen  population  of  North  Africa  is  hardly  less  meagre 
than  the  few  facts  recorded  above  regarding  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  Christian  Church.  The  Berbers  offered  a 
vigorous  resistance  to  the  progress  of  the  Arab  arms,  and 
force  seems  to  have  had  more  influence  than  persuasion  in 
their  conversion.  Whenever  opportunity  presented  itself, 
they  rebelled  against  the  religion  as  well  as  the  rule  of  their 
conquerors,  and  Arab  historians  declare  that  they  apostasised 
as  many  as  twelve  times.2  In  the  annals  of  the  long  struggle 
a  few  scanty  references  to  conversions  are  to  be  found. 
These  would  appear  sometimes  to  have  been  prompted 
by  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  further  resistance  to  the 

^J1  An  excellent  map  of  the  extent  of  Islam  in  Africa  is  to  be  found  in 
"  The  International  Review  of  Missions,"  vol.  i.  p.  652. 
1 7  a  Fournel,  vol.  i.  p.  271. 

312 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        313 

Arab  arms  was  useless.  When  in  703  the  Berbers  made  their 
last  stand  against  the  invaders,  their  intrepid  leader  and 
prophetess,  al-Kahinah,1  foreseeing  that  the  fortune  of  battle 
was  to  turn  against  them,  sent  her  sons  into  the  camp  of  the 
Muslim  general  with  instructions  that  they  were  to  embrace 
Islam  and  make  common  cause  with  the  enemy ;  she  herself 
elected  to  fall  fighting  with  her  countrymen  in  the  great 
battle  that  crushed  the  political  power  of  the  Berbers  and 
gave  Northern  Africa  into  the  hands  of  the  Arabs.  Peace 
was  made  on  condition  that  the  Berbers  would  furnish  12,000 
combatants  to  the  ranks  of  the  Arab  troops,  and  of  these 
men  two  army-corps  were  formed,  each  of  which  was  placed 
under  the  command  of  one  of  the  sons  of  al-Kahinah.2 
By  this  device  of  enlisting  the  Berbers  in  their  armies,  the 
Arab  generals  hoped  to  win  them  to  their  own  religion  by 
the  hope  of  booty. 

The  army  of  seven  thousand  Berbers  that  sailed  from 
Africa  in  711  under  the  command  of  Tariq  (himself  a  Berber) 
to  the  conquest  of  Spain,  was  composed  of  recent  converts 
to  Islam,  and  their  conversion  is  expressly  said  to  have  been 
sincere  :  learned  Arabs  and  theologians  were  appointed, 
"  to  read  and  explain  to  them  the  sacred  words  of  the 
Qur'an,  and  instruct  them  in  all  and  every  one  of  the  duties 
enjoined  by  their  new  religion."  3  Musa,  the  great  con- 
queror of  Africa,  showed  his  zeal  for  the  progress  of  Islam 
by  devoting  the  large  sums  of  money  granted  him  by  the 
caliph  'Abd  al-Malik  to  the  purchase  of  such  captives  as 
gave  promise  of  showing  themselves  worthy  children  of  the 
faith  :  "for  whenever  after  a  victory  there  was  a  number  of 
slaves  put  up  for  sale,  he  used  to  buy  all  those  whom  he 
thought  would  willingly  embrace  Islam,  who  were  of  noble 
origin,  and  who  looked,  besides,  as  if  they  were  active  young 
men.  To  these  he  first  proposed  the  embracing  of  Islam, 
and  if,  after  cleansing  their  understanding  and  making  them 
fit  to  receive  its  sublime  truths,  they  were  converted  to  the 
best  of  religions,  and  their  conversion  was  a  sincere  one, 
he  then  would,  by  way  of  putting  their  abilities  to  trial, 
employ  them.     If  they  evinced  good  disposition  and  talents 

1  i.  e.  the  diviner  or  priestess;   her  real  name  is  unknown. 

2  Fournel,  vol.  i.  p.  22  j.  3  Makkari,  vol.  i.  p.  253. 


3i4  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

he  would  instantly  grant  them  liberty,  appoint  them  to 
high  commands  in  his  army,  and  promote  them  according 
to  their  merits ;  if,  on  the  contrary,  they  showed  no  aptitude 
for  their  appointments,  he  would  send  them  back  to  the 
common  depot  of  captives  belonging  to  the  army,  to  be 
again  disposed  of  according  to  the  general  custom  of  drawing 
out  the  spoil  by  arrows."  1 

How  superficial  the  conversion  of  the  Berbers  was  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  when  the  pious  'Umar  b.  'Abd 
al-'Aziz  in  a.h.  ioo  (a.d.  718)  appointed  Isma'il  b.  'Abd 
Allah  governor  of  North  Africa,  ten  learned  theologians  were 
sent  with  him  to  instruct  the  Muslim  Berbers  in  the  ordin- 
ances of  their  faith,  since  up  to  that  time  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  recognised  that  their  new  religion  forbade  to  them  in- 
dulgence in  wine.  The  new  governor  is  said  to  have  shown 
great  zeal  in  inviting  the  Berbers  to  accept  Islam,  but  the 
statement  that  his  efforts  were  crowned  with  such  success 
that  not  a  single  Berber  remained  unconverted  is  certainly 
not  correct.2  For  the  conversion  of  the  Berbers  was  un- 
doubtedly the  work  of  several  centuries ;  even  to  the  present 
day  they  retain  many  of  their  primitive  institutions  which 
are  in  opposition  to  Muslim  law.3  Islam  took  no  firm  root 
among  them  until  it  assumed  the  form  of  a  national  move- 
ment and  became  connected  with  the  establishment  of 
native  dynasties,  under  which  many  Berbers  came  within 
the  pale  of  Islam  who  before  had  looked  upon  the  acceptance 
of  this  faith  as  a  sign  of  loss  of  political  independence.  Of 
these  various  changes  of  political  condition  it  is  not  the 
place  to  speak  here,  but  in  a  history  of  Muslim  propaganda 
the  rise  of  the  Almoravids  deserves  special  mention  as  a 
great  national  movement  that  attracted  a  great  many  of  the 
Berber  tribes  to  join  the  Muslim  community.  In  the  early 
part  of  the  eleventh  century,  Yahyg.  b.  Ibrahim,  a  chief 
of  the  Sanhaja,  one  of  the  Berber  tribes  of  the  Sahara,  on 
his  return  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  sought  in  the  religious 
centres  of  Northern  Africa  for  a  learned  and  pious  teacher, 
who  should  accompany  him  as  a  missionary  of  Islam  to  his 

1  Makkarl,  vol.  i.  p.  lxv.  2  Fournel,  vol.  i.  p.  270. 

3  For  these  and  the  heretical  movements  that  reveal  survivals  of  the 
earlier  Berber  faith,  see  Goldziher,  Materialen  zur  Kenntniss  der  Almo- 
hadenbewegung  in  Nordafrika  (Z  D  M  G,  vol.  xli,  p.  37  sqq.). 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        315 

benighted  and  ignorant  tribesmen  :  at  first  he  found  it 
difficult  to  find  a  man  willing  to  leave  his  scholarly  retreat 
and  brave  the  dangers  of  the  Sahara,  but  at  length  he  met  in 
'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasin  the  fit  person,  bold  enough  to  under- 
take so  difficult  a  mission,  pious  and  austere  in  his  life,  and 
learned  in  theology,  law  and  other  sciences.  So  far  back 
as  the  ninth  century  the  preachers  of  Islam  had  made  their 
way  among  the  Berbers  of  the  Sahara  and  established 
among  them  the  religion  of  the  Prophet,  but  this  faith  had 
found  very  little  acceptance  there,  and  'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasin 
found  even  the  professed  Muslims  to  be  very  lax  in  their 
religious  observances  and  given  up  to  all  kinds  of  vicious 
practices.  He  ardently  threw  himself  into  the  task  of 
converting  them  to  the  right  path  and  instructing  them  in 
the  duties  of  religion;  but  the  sternness  with  which  he 
rebuked  their  vices  and  sought  to  reform  their  conduct, 
alienated  their  sympathies  from  him,  and  the  ill-success  of 
his  mission  almost  drove  him  to  abandon  this  stiff-necked 
people  and  devote  his  efforts  to  the  conversion  of  the  Sudan. 
Being  persuaded,  however,  not  to  desert  the  work  he  had 
once  undertaken,  he  retired  with  such  disciples  as  his 
preaching  had  gathered  around  him,  to  an  island  in  the 
river  Senegal,  where  they  founded  a  monastery  and  gave 
themselves  up  unceasingly  to  devotional  exercises.  The 
more  devout-minded  among  the  Berbers,  stung  to  repentance 
by  the  thought  of  the  wickedness  that  had  driven  their  holy 
teacher  from  their  midst,  came  humbly  to  his  island  to 
implore  his  forgiveness  and  receive  his  instructions  in  the 
saving  truths  of  religion.  Thus  day  by  day  there  gathered 
around  him  an  increasing  band  of  disciples,  especially  from 
among  the  Lamtuna,  a  branch  of  the  Sanhaja  clan,  whose 
numbers  swelled  at  length  to  about  a  thousand.  'Abd 
Allah  b.  Yasin  then  recognised  that  the  time  had  come  for 
launching  out  upon  a  wider  sphere  of  action,  and  he  called 
upon  his  followers  to  show  their  gratitude  to  God  for  the 
revelation  he  had  vouchsafed  them,  by  communicating  the 
knowledge  of  it  to  others  :  "  Go  to  your  fellow-tribesmen, 
teach  them  the  law  of  God  and  threaten  them  with  His 
chastisement.  If  they  repent,  amend  their  ways  and  accept 
the  truth,  leave  them  in  peace  ;   if  they  refuse  and  persist 


316  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

in  their  errors  and  evil  lives,  invoke  the  aid  of  God  against 
them,  and  let  us  make  war  upon  them  until  God  decide 
between  us."  Hereupon  each  man  went  to  his  own  tribe 
and  began  to  exhort  them  to  repent  and  believe,  but  without 
success  :  equally  unsuccessful  were  the  efforts  of  'Abd 
Allah  b.  Yasin  himself,  who  left  his  monastery  in  the  hope 
of  finding  the  Berber  chiefs  more  willing  now  to  listen  to  his 
preaching.  At  length  in  1042  he  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  his  followers,  to  whom  he  had  given  the  name  of  al- 
Murabitin  (the  so-called  Almoravids) — a  name  derived 
from  the  same  root  as  the  ribat x  or  monastery  on  his  island 
in  the  Senegal, — and  attacked  the  neighbouring  tribes  and 
forced  the  acceptance  of  Islam  upon  them.  The  success 
that  attended  his  warlike  expeditions  appeared  to  the  tribes 
of  the  Sahara  a  more  persuasive  argument  than  all  his 
preaching,  and  they  very  soon  came  forward  voluntarily  to 
embrace  a  faith  that  secured  such  brilliant  successes  to 
the  arms  of  its  adherents.  'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasin  died  in 
1059,  but  the  movement  he  had  initiated  lived  after  him 
and  many  heathen  tribes  of  Berbers  came  to  swell  the 
numbers  of  their  Muslim  fellow-countrymen,  embracing 
their  religion  at  the  same  time  as  the  cause  they  championed, 
and  poured  out  of  the  Sahara  over  North  Africa  and  later 
on  made  themselves  masters  of  Spain  also.2 
•  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  other  great  national  move- 
ment that  originated  among  the  Berber  tribes,  viz.  the  rise 
of  the  Almohads  at  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century, 
may  have  attracted  into  the  Muslim  community  some 
of  the  tribes  that  had  up  to  that  time  still  stood  aloof. 
Their  founder,  Ibn  Tumart,  popularised  the  sternly 
Unitarian  tenets  of  this  sect  by  means  of  works  in  the  Berber 
language  which  expounded  from  his  own  point  of  view 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Islam,  and  he  made  a  still 
further  concession  to  the  nationalist  spirit  of  the  Berbers 
by  ordering  the  call  to  prayer  to  be  made  in  their  own 
language.3 

Some  of  the  Berber  tribes,  however,  remained  heathen  up 

1  On  this  word,  see  Doutte,  Notes  sur  1' I  slam  maghribin.     (Revue  de 
l'histoire  des  religions,  torn.  xli.  p.  24-6.) 

2  Ibn  abi  Zar',  pp.  168-73.     A.  Miiller,  vol.  ii.  pp.  611-13. 

3  Ibn  abi  Zar',  p.  250.     Goldziher,  op.  laud.,  p.  71. 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN  AFRICA        317 

to  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,1  but  the  general  tendency 
was  naturally  towards  an  absorption  of  these  smaller 
communities  into  the  larger. 

The  sixteenth  century  witnessed  the  birth  of  a  movement 
of  active  proselytising  in  the  Maghrib,  which  has  been  traced 
to  the  reaction  excited  by  the  successes  of  the  Christian 
powers  in  Spain  and  North  Africa.  This  gave  an  immense 
impulse  to  the  institution  of  the  "  marabouts,"  2  and  large 
numbers  of  them  set  out  from  the  monastic  settlements  in 
the  south  of  Morocco  to  carry  a  peaceful  missionary  campaign 
throughout  the  Maghrib,  renewing  the  faith  of  the  lukewarm 
adherents  of  Islam  and  converting  their  heathen  neighbours.3 
To  this  proselytising  movement  the  Muslim  refugees  from 
Spain  contributed  their  part,  as  has  been  shown  above 
(p.  127),  coming  to  the  aid  of  the  Shurafa'  or  descendants  of 
Idris  b.  'Abd  Allah,  who  had  fled  to  Morocco  to  escape  the 
wrath  of  Harun  al-Rashid.4 

From  the  Sahara  the  knowledge  of  Islam  first  spread 
among  the  Negroes  of  the  Sudan.  The  early  history  of 
this  movement  is  wrapped  in  obscurity,  but  there  seems 
little  doubt  that  it  was  the  Berbers  who  first  introduced 
Islam  into  the  lands  watered  by  the  Senegal  and  the  Niger ; 
here  they  came  in  contact  with  pagan  kingdoms,  some  of 
them  (e.  g.  Ghana  and  Songhay)  of  great  antiquity.5  The 
two  Berber  tribes,  the  Lamtima  and  the  Jadala,  belonging 
to  the  Sanhaja  clan,  especially  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  religious  zeal  in  the  work  of  conversion,6  and 
through  their  agency  the  Almoravid  movement  reacted  on 
the  pagan  tribes  of  the  Sudan.  The  reign  of  Yiisuf  b. 
Tashfin,  the  founder  of  Morocco  (a.d.  1062)  and  the  second 
amir  of  the  Almoravid  dynasty,  was  very  fruitful  in  con- 
versions, and  many  Negroes  under  his  rule  came  to  know  of 
the  doctrines  of  Muhammad.7     In  1076  the  Berbers  who 

1  Leo  Africanus.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  n.)  2  Jajlj-«- 

3  Doutte,  ad.  p.  354 ;   xli.  pp.  26-7.  *  Depont  et  Coppolani,  p.  127  sq. 

6  It  is  not  the  place  here  to  deal  with  the  rise  and  political  history  of  the 
various  kingdoms  of  the  Western  Sudan ;  this  has  been  done  most  fully 
for  the  English  reader  by  Lady  Lugard  in  her  work  entitled,  "  A  Tropical 
Dependency.  An  Outline  of  the  Ancient  History  of  the  Western  Sudan, 
with  an  Account  of  the  Modern  Settlement  of  Northern  Nigeria."  (London, 
1905.)  See  also  H.  F.  Helmolt :  The  World's  History,  vol.  111.  chap.  ix. 
(London,  1903.)  •  Blau,  p.  322. 

7  Leo  Africanus.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  pp.  7,  77.) 


318  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

had  been  spreading  Islam  in  the  kingdom  of  Ghana  for 
some  time,  drove  out  the  reigning  dynasty,  which  was 
probably  Fulbe,  and  this  ancient  kingdom  became  through- 
out Muhammadan;  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  it  lost  its  independence  and  was  conquered  by  the 
Mandingos.1 

Of  the  introduction  of  Islam  into  the  ancient  kingdom  of 
Songhay,  which  is  said  to  have  been  in  existence  as  early  as 
a.d.  700,  we  have  only  the  record  that  the  first  Muhammadan 
king  was  named  Za-kassi,  the  fifteenth  monarch  of  the  Za 
dynasty;  his  conversion  took  place  in  the  year  A.H.  400 
(a.d.  1009-1010),  and  in  the  Songhay  language  he  was 
styled  Muslim-dam,  which  implied  that  he  had  adopted 
Islam  of  his  own  free  will  and  not  by  compulsion,  but 
there  is  no  mention  of  the  influences  to  which  he  owed  his 
conversion.2 

In  the  same  century  there  were  founded  on  the  Upper 
Niger  two  cities,  destined  in  succeeding  centuries  to  exercise 
an  immense  influence  on  the  development  of  Islam  in  the 
Western  Sudan,— Jenne,3  founded  in  a.h.  435  (a.d.  1043- 
1044)  ,4  and  destined  to  become  an  important  trading  centre, 
and  Timbuktu,  the  great  emporium  for  the  caravan  trade  with 
the  north,  founded  about  the  year  a.d.  iioo.  The  king  of 
Jenne,  Kunburu,  became  a  Muslim  towards  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century  of  the  Hijrah  (i.  e.  about  a.d.  1200)  and  his 
example  was  followed  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  city ;  when 
he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  embrace  Islam,  he  is  said  to 
have  collected  together  all  the  'ulama'  in  his  kingdom,  to 
the  number  of  4200 — (however  exaggerated  this  number 
may  be,  the  story  would  seem  to  imply  that  Islam  had 
already  made  considerable  progress  in  his  dominions) — and 
publicly  in  their  presence  declared  himself  a  Muslim  and 
exhorted  them  to  pray  for  the  prosperity  of  his  city;  he 
then  had  his  palace  pulled  down  and  built  a  great  mosque  5 
in  its  place.6     Timbuktu,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  Muham- 

1  Meyer,  p.  91.  2  Ta'rlkh  al-Sudan,  p.  3. 

3  Jinni  or  Dienne. 

*  So  Meyer  following  Barth ;  the  Ta'rlkh  al-Sudan  (p.  12)  places  the  date 
about  three  centuries  earlier.  . 

6  Felix  Dubois  gives  a  plan  and  reconstruction  of  this  mosque,  which 
was  destroyed  by  order  of  Shaykhu  Ahmadu  about  1830,  in  "  Tombouctou 
la  Mysterieuse,"  chap.  ix.  6  Ta'rlkh  al-Sudan,  pp.  12-13. 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM  IN  AFRICA        319 

madan  city  from  the  beginning;  "  never  did  the  worship  of 
idols  defile  it,  never  did  any  man  prostrate  himself  on  its 
soil  except  in  prayer  to  God  the  Merciful."  *  In  later  years 
it  became  influential  as  a  seat  of  Muhammadan  learning  and 
piety,  and  students  and  divines  flocked  there  in  large 
numbers,  attracted  by  the  encouragement  and  patronage 
they  received.  Ibn  Batutah,  who  travelled  through  this 
country  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  praises  the 
Negroes  for  their  zeal  in  the  performance  of  their  devotions 
and  in  the  study  of  the  Qur'an  :  unless  one  went  very  early 
to  the  mosque  on  Friday,  he  tells  us,  it  was  impossible  to 
find  a  place,  so  crowded  was  the  attendance.2  In  his  time, 
the  most  powerful  state  of  the  Western  Sudan  was  that  of 
Melle  or  Malll,  which  had  risen  to  importance  about  a  century 
before,  after  the  conquest  of  Ghana  by  the  Mandingos,  one 
of  the  finest  races  of  Africa  :  Leo  Africanus  3  calls  them  the 
most  civilised,  the  most  intellectual  and  most  respected  of 
all  the  Negroes,  and  modern  travellers  praise  them  for  their 
industry,  cleverness  and  trustworthiness.4  These  Mandingos 
have  been  among  the  most  active  missionaries  of  Islam, 
which  has  been  spread  by  them  among  the  neighbouring 
peoples.5 

According  to  the  Kano  Chronicle  it  was  the  Mandingos 
who  brought  the  knowledge  of  Islam  to  the  Hausa  people ; 
the  date  is  uncertain,6  as  are  most  dates  connected  with 
the  history  of  the  Hausa  states,  because  the  Fulbe,  who 
conquered  them  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
destroyed  most  of  their  historical  records.  But  the  import- 
ance of  the  adoption  of  Islam  by  the  Hausas  cannot  be 
exaggerated ;  they  are  an  energetic  and  intelligent  people, 
and  their  remarkable  aptitude  for  trade  has  won  for  them 

1  Ta'rikh  al-Sudan,  p.  21.  2  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  pp.  421-2. 

3  Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  78. 

4  Winwood  Reade  describes  them  as  "  a  tall,  handsome,  light-coloured 
race,  Moslems  in  religion,  possessing  horses  and  large  herds  of  cattle,  but 
also  cultivating  cotton,  ground-nuts,  and  various  kinds  of  corn.  I  was 
much  pleased  with  their  kind  and  hospitable  manners,  the  grave  and 
decorous  aspect  of  their  women,  the  cleanliness  and  silence  of  their  villages. 
(W.  Winwood  Reade  :   African  Sketchbook,  vol.  i.  p.  303.) 

6  Waitz,  IIer  Theil,  pp.  18-19. 

6  Palmer  (p.  59)  places  its  introduction  into  Kano  between  a.d.  1349 
and  1385  another  Hausa  chronicle  makes  the  reign  of  the  first  Muhammadan 
king  of  Zozo  begin  about  1456.  (Journal  of  the  African  Society,  vol.  ix. 
p.  161.) 


320  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

an  immense  influence  among  the  various  peoples  with  whom 
they  have  come  in  contact ;  their  language  has  become  the 
language  of  commerce  for  the  Western  Sudan,  and  wherever 
the  Hausa  traders  go — and  they  are  found  from  the  coast 
of  Guinea  to  Cairo — they  carry  the  faith  of  Islam  with  them. 
References  to  their  missionary  activity  will  be  found  in  the 
following  pages.  But  of  their  own  adoption  of  the  faith, 
as  well  as  of  the  rise  of  the  seven  Hausa  states  and  their 
dependencies,1  historical  evidence  is  almost  entirely  wanting  ;2 
one  of  the  missionaries  of  Islam  to  Kano  and  Katsena  would 
certainly  seem  to  have  been  a  learned  and  pious  teacher  from 
Tlemsen,  Muhammad  b.  'Abd  al  -  Karim  b.  Muhammad 
al-Majili,  who  flourished  about  the  year  1500 ;  3  possibly 
they  were  affected  by  the  great  wave  of  Muhammadan 
influence  which  moved  southward  from  Egypt  in  the 
twelfth  century.4  The  merchants  of  Kordofan  and  in  the 
Eastern  Sudan  generally,  boast  that  they  are  descended 
from  Arabs  who  made  their  way  thither  after  the  fall  of  the 
Fatimid  caliphate  of  Egypt  in  1171.  But  there  were 
probably  still  earlier  instances  of  Muslim  influence  coming 
into  Central  Africa  from  the  north-east.  It  was  from  Egypt 
that  Islam  spread  into  Kanem,  a  kingdom  on  the  N.  and 
N.E.  of  Lake  Chad,  which  shortly  after  the  adoption  of  Islam 
rose  to  be  a  state  of  considerable  importance  and  extended 
its  sway  over  the  tribes  of  the  Eastern  Sudan  to  the  borders 
of  Egypt  and  Nubia ;  the  first  Muhammadan  king  of  Kanem 
is  said  to  have  reigned  either  towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
or  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century.5  But  the  details 
we  possess  of  the  spread  of  Islam  from  the  north-east  are 
even  more  scanty  than  those  already  given  for  the  history 
of  the  states  of  the  Western  Sudan.     The  mere  dates  of  the 


1  For  the  various  enumerations  of  these,  see  Meyer,  p.  27. 

2  As  in  other  parts  of  the  Muslim  world,  tradition  places  the  first  intro- 
duction of  Islam  in  the  lifetime  of  the  founder  and  gives  the  name  of  al- 
Fazazi,  a  reputed  companion  of  the  Prophet,  as  the  apostle  of  the  Hausa 
people.     (J.  Lippert  :  Sudanica.    MSOS,  iii.  part  3,  p.  204.    (Berlin,  1900.) 

3  Mischlich  and  Lippert,  pp.  138-9. 

4  Meyer,  loc.  cit.  Artin  Pasha  (p.  62)  puts  the  beginning  of  this  infiltra- 
tion of  Muslim  Arabs  as  early  as  the  eighth  century. 

6  Becker,  Geschichte  des  ostlichen  Sudan,  p.  162-3.  Blau,  p.  322. 
Oppel,  p.  289.  At  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  'Umar  b.  Idris 
moved  his  capital  to  the  west  of  Lake  Chad  in  the  territory  of  Bornu,  by 
which  name  the  kingdom  of  Kanem  became  henceforth  known. 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  AFRICA       321 

conversion  of  kings  and  the  establishment  of  Muhammadan 
dynasties  tell  us  very  little ;  but  one  fact  stands  out  clearly 
from  this  meagre  record,  namely  the  extreme  slowness  of 
the  process.  The  survival  of  considerable  groups  of  fetish- 
worshippers  in  the  midst  of  territories  which  for  centuries 
were  under  Muhammadan  rule,  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  influence  of  Islam  was  long  confined  to  the  towns  and 
only  by  degrees  made  its  way  among  the  pagan  population, 
if  indeed  it  did  not  meet  with  such  stubborn  resistance  as 
has  kept  the  Bambara  pagan,  though  (dwelling  between  the 
Upper  Senegal  and  the  Upper  Niger)  they  have  been  hemmed 
in  by  a  Muhammadan  population  for  centuries. 

An  unsuccessful  attempt  to  convert  the  Bambara  was 
made  by  a  marabout,  named  'Umaru  Kaba,  early  in  the 
twentieth  century.  This  man  had  founded  a  new  religious 
confraternity,  connected  with  the  Qadiriyyah,  and  having 
failed  to  attract  his  co-religionists  to  it,  he  turned  his 
attention  to  the  pagan  Bambara,  and  endeavoured  to  con- 
vert them  to  Islam  and  enrol  them  in  his  order.  He  seemed 
to  be  on  the  road  to  success  and  had  already  converted  a 
pagan  village  in  the  province  of  Sansanding,  when  the  chief 
of  the  province  drove  the  missionary  across  the  frontier 
and  ordered  the  newly-converted  Bambara  to  return  to 
their  old  religious  observances.1 

Where  intermarriages  with  such  races  as  Arabs  and 
Berbers  have  been  frequent,  a  steady  process  of  infiltration 
has  gone  on,  and  this,  added  to  the  propagandist  activities 
of  those  races — Fulbe,  Hausa  and  Mandingo — who  have 
distinguished  themselves  for  their  zeal  on  behalf  of  their 
religion,  would  have  contributed  to  the  more  rapid  growth 
of  a  Muhammadan  population,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
internecine  wars  that  caused  one  Muhammadan  state  to 
work  the  destruction  of  another.  Melle  rose  on  the  ruins 
of  Ghana  in  the  thirteenth  century,  to  be  crushed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  by  Songhay,  which  in  its  turn 
was  desolated  by  the  Moors  a  century  later.  As  these 
Muhammadan  empires  declined,  with  the  wholesale  mas- 
sacres characteristic  of  warfare  in  the  Sudan,  fetishism 
regained  much  of  the  ground  it  had  lost;    and  as  in  the 

1  Maurice  Delafosse,  p.  87. 
Y 


322  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Christian,  so  in  the  Muhammadan  world,  there  have  been 
periods  when  missionary  zeal  has  sunk  to  a  low  ebb,  and 
Muhammadans  in  some  parts  of  the  Sudan  have  been  content 
to  leave  the  paganism  that  surrounded  them  untouched  by 
any  proselytising  efforts. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  the  Tunjar  Arabs,  emigrating 
south  from  Tunis,  made  their  way  through  Bornu  and  Wadai 
to  Darfur ;  others  came  in  later  from  the  east ; *  one  of 
their  number  named  Ahmad  met  with  a  kind  reception  from 
the  heathen  king  of  Darfur,  who  took  a  fancy  to  him,  made 
him  director  of  his  household  and  consulted  him  on  all 
occasions.  His  experience  of  more  civilised  methods  of 
government  enabled  him  to  introduce  a  number  of  reforms 
both  into  the  economy  of  the  king's  household  and  the 
government  of  the  state.  By  judicious  management,  he  is 
said  to  have  brought  the  unruly  chieftains  into  subjection, 
and  by  portioning  out  the  land  among  the  poorer  inhabitants 
to  have  put  an  end  to  the  constant  internal  raids,  thereby 
introducing  a  feeling  of  security  and  contentment  before 
unknown.  The  king  having  no  male  heir  gave  Ahmad  his 
daughter  in  marriage  and  appointed  him  his  successor, — 
a  choice  that  was  ratified  by  the  acclamation  of  the  people, 
and  the  Muhammadan  dynasty  thus  instituted  has  con- 
tinued down  to  the  present  century.  The  civilising  influences 
exercised  by  this  chief  and  his  descendants  were  doubtless 
accompanied  by  some  work  of  proselytism,  but  these  Arab 
immigrants  seem  to  have  done  very  little  for  the  spread 
of  their  religion  among  their  heathen  neighbours.  Darfur 
only  definitely  became  Muhammadan  through  the  efforts 
of  one  of  its  kings  named  Sulayman  who  began  to  reign  in 
1596,2  and  it  was  not  until  the  sixteenth  century  that  Islam 
gained  a  footing  in  the  other  kingdoms  lying  between 
Kordofan  and  Lake  Chad,  such  as  Wadai  and  Baghirmi. 
The  first  Muhammadan  king  of  Baghirmi  was  Sultan  'Abd 
Allah,  who  reigned  from  1568  to  1608,  but  the  chief  centre 
of  Muhammadan  influence  at  this  time  was  the  kingdom 
of  Wadai,  which  was  founded  by  'Abd  al-Karim  about  A.D. 
1612,  and  it  was  not  until  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 

1  Becker:  Geschichte  des  ostlichen  Sudan,  pp.  161-2. 
8  R.  C.  Slatin  Pasha  :    Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Sudan,  pp.  38,  40-2. 
(London,  1896.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        323 

century  that  the  mass  of    the  people  of    Baghirmi  were 
converted  to  Islam.1 

But  the  history  of  the  Muhammadan  propaganda  in 
Africa  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  is 
very  slight  and  wholly  insignificant  when  compared  with  the 
remarkable  revival  of  missionary  activity  during  the  present 
century.  Some  powerful  influence  was  needed  to  arouse 
the  dormant  energies  of  the  African  Muslims,  whose  con- 
dition during  the  eighteenth  century  seems  to  have  been 
almost  one  of  religious  indifference.  Their  spiritual  awaken- 
ing owed  itself  to  the  influence  of  the  Wahhabi  reformation 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  whence  it  comes  that 
in  modern  times  we  meet  with  some  accounts  of  proselytis- 
ing movements  among  the  Negroes  that  are  not  quite  so 
forbiddingly  meagre  as  those  just  recounted,  but  present 
us  with  ample  details  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  several 
important  missionary  enterprises. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  remarkable 
man,  Shaykh  'Uthman  Danfodio,2  arose  from  among  the 
Fulbe 3  as  a  religious  reformer  and  warrior-missionary. 
From  the  Sudan  he  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  whence 
he  returned  full  of  zeal  and  enthusiasm  for  the  reformation 
and  propagation  of  Islam.  Influenced  by  the  doctrines  of 
the  Wahhabis,  who  were  growing  powerful  at  the  time  of 
his  visit  to  Mecca,  he  denounced  the  practice  of  prayers  for 
the  dead  and  the  honour  paid  to  departed  saints,  and  depre- 
cated the  excessive  veneration  of  Muhammad  himself;  at 
the  same  time  he  attacked  the  two  prevailing  sins  of  the 
Sudan,  drunkenness  and  immorality. 

Up  to  that  time  the  Fulbe  had  consisted  of  a  number  of 
small  scattered  clans  living  a  pastoral  life ;  they  had  early 
embraced  Islam,  and  hitherto  had  contented  themselves 
with  forming  colonies  of  shepherds  and  planters  in  different 
parts  of  the  Sudan.  The  accounts  we  have  of  them  in  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  represent  them  to  be 
a  peaceful  and  industrious  people ;    one  4  who  visited  their 

1  Westermann,  p.  628. 

2  Oppel,  p.  292.     Meyer,  pp.  36-7.     Westermann,  pp.  629-30. 

3  Fulbe  (sing.  Pul)  is  the  name  by  which  these  people  call  themselves; 
upwards  of  a  hundred  variants  are  applied  to  them  by  their  neighbours, 
the  commonest  of  which  are  Fulah  and  Fulani.      (Meyer,  p.  28.) 

4  Francis  Moore,  pp.  75-7. 


324  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

settlements  on  the  Gambia  in  173 1  speaks  of  them  thus  : 
"  In  every  kingdom  and  country  on  each  side  of  the  rivei 
are  people  of  a  tawny  colour,  called  Pholeys  (i.e.  Fulbe), 
who  resemble  the  Arabs,  whose  language  most  of  them 
speak;  for  it  is  taught  in  their  schools,  and  the  Koran; 
which  is  also  their  law,  is  in  that  language.  They  are  more 
generally  learned  in  the  Arabic,  than  the  people  of  Europe 
are  in  Latin ;  for  they  can  most  of  them  speak  it ;  though 
they  have  a  vulgar  tongue  called  Pholey.  They  live  in 
hordes  or  clans,  build  towns,  and  are  not  subject  to  any  oi 
the  kings  of  the  country,  tho'  they  live  in  their  territories ; 
for  if  they  are  used  ill  in  one  nation  they  break  up  theii 
towns  and  remove  to  another.  They  have  chiefs  of  theii 
own,  who  rule  with  such  moderation,  that  every  act  oi 
government  seems  rather  an  act  of  the  people  than  of  one 
man.  This  form  of  government  is  easily  administered, 
because  the  people  are  of  a  good  and  quiet  disposition,  and 
so  well  instructed  in  what  is  just  and  right,  that  a  man  who 
does  ill  is  the  abomination  of  all.  .  .  .  They  are  very 
industrious  and  frugal,  and  raise  much  more  corn  and  cotton 
than  they  consume,  which  they  sell  at  reasonable  rates,  and 
are  so  remarkable  for  their  hospitality  that  the  natives 
esteem  it  a  blessing  to  have  a  Pholey  town  in  their  neigh- 
bourhood; besides,  their  behaviour  has  gained  them  such 
reputation  that  it  is  esteemed  infamous  for  any  one  to  treat 
them  in  an  inhospitable  manner.  Though  their  humanity 
extends  to  all,  they  are  doubly  kind  to  people  of  their  own 
race ;  and  if  they  know  of  any  of  their  body  being  made  a 
slave,  all  the  Pholeys  will  unite  to  redeem  him.  As  they  have 
plenty  of  food  they  never  suffer  any  of  their  own  people  to 
want ;  but  support  the  old,  the  blind,  and  the  lame,  equally 
with  the  others.  They  are  seldom  angry,  and  I  never  heard 
them  abuse  one  another ;  yet  this  mildness  does  not  proceed 
from  want  of  courage,  for  they  are  as  brave  as  any  people 
of  Africa,  and  are  very  expert  in  the  use  of  their  arms,  which 
are  the  assagay,  short  cutlasses,  bows  and  arrows  and  even 
guns  upon  occasion.  .  .  .  They  are  strict  Mahometans; 
and  scarcely  any  of  them  will  drink  brandy,  or  anything 
stronger  than  water." 

Danfodio  united  into  one  powerful  organisation  these 


THE   SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        325 

separate   communities,    scattered   throughout   the   various 

Hausa  states.     The  first  outbreak  occurred  in  the  year  1802, 

in  the  still  pagan  kingdom  of  Gober,  which  had  gained 

ascendancy  over  the  northernmost  of  the  Hausa  states; 

the  attempt  of  the  king  of  Gober  to  check  the  growing  power 

of  the  Fulbe  in  his  dominions  caused  Danfodio  to  raise  the 

standard  of  revolt ;   he  soon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a 

powerful  army,  which  attacked  not  only  the  pagan  tribes, 

forcing  upon  them  the  faith  of  the  Prophet,  but  also  the 

Muhammadan  Hausa  states.     These  fell  one  after  another 

and  the  whole  of  Hausaland  came  under  the  rule  of  Danfodio 

before  his  death  in  1816.     His  grave  in  Sokoto  is  still  an 

object  of  reverence  to  large  numbers  of  pilgrims.     He  divided 

his  kingdom  among  his  two  sons,  who  still  further  extended 

the  boundary  of  Fulbe  rule;  Adamaua,  founded  in  1837  on 

the  ruins  of  several  pagan  kingdoms,  marks  the  limit  of 

their  conquests  to  the  south-east ;  and  the  city  of  Ilorin,  in 

the  Yoruba  country,  founded  in  the  lifetime  of   Danfodio, 

was  the  bulwark  of  the  Pul  empire  to  the  south-west.     With 

varying  fortunes  the  dominant  power  remained  throughout 

the  nineteenth  century  in  the  hands  of  the  Fulbe,  who  showed 

themselves  cruel  and  fanatical  propagandists  of  Islam,  until 

British  administration  was  established  in  Nigeria  in  1900. 

The  introduction  of  law  and  order  into  Southern  Nigeria 

has  favoured  the  propaganda  of  Islam  as  in  other  parts  of 

Africa  that  have  come  under  European  rule.     The  Hausa 

Muslims,  some  of  whom  belong  to  the  Tijaniyyah  order, 

have  been  able  to  move  freely  about  the  country  and  to 

penetrate  among  pagan  tribes  which  had  hitherto  kept  all 

Muhammadan  influences  rigidly  at  bay.     In  the  Yoruba 

country  particularly  Islam  is  said  to  be  rapidly  gaining 

ground.     There  is  a  legend  of  an  unsuccessful  attempt  made 

by  a  Muslim  missionary  as  early  as  the  eleventh  or  twelfth 

century;    he  was  a  Hausa  who  came  to  Ife,  the  religious 

capital  of  the  pagan  Yoruba  country,  and  used  to  call  the 

people  together  and  read  them  passages  from  the  Qur'an ; 

he  could  only  speak  the  Yoruba  language  imperfectly,  and 

with  a  foreign  accent  he  would  repeat  to  his  listeners,  "  Let 

us  worship  Allah  :  He  created  the  mountain,  He  created  the 

lowland,  He  created  everything,  He  created  us."     He  did 


326  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

this  from  time  to  time  without  succeeding  in  winning  a 
single  convert,  and  died  a  few  months  after  his  arrival  in 
He.     After  his  death  his  Qur'an  was  found  hanging  on  a 
peg  in  the  wall  of  his  room,  and  it  came  to  be  worshipped  as 
a  fetish.1     Where  this  early  apostle  of  the  faith  failed,  his 
modern  co-religionists  have  achieved  a  remarkable  success. 
During  the  period  of  anarchy  before  the  British  occupation, 
the  Muslims  were  for  the  most  part  congregated  in  large, 
walled  towns,  but  under  the  new  conditions  of    security 
they  are  able  to  reside  permanently  in  villages,  and  near 
the  scenes  of  their  agricultural  labours,  and  Muhammadan 
influences  have  thus  become  more  widely  extended  over  the 
country.     As    in    German    East    Africa,    the    presence    of 
Muhammadans  among  the  native  troops  has  been  found  to 
be  favourable  to  the  extension  of  their  faith,  and  the  pagan 
recruits  often  adopt  Islam  in  order  to  escape  ridicule  and 
gain  in  self-respect.2     In  the  Ijebu  country  also,  in  Southern 
Nigeria,  a  quite  recent  propagandist  movement  has  been 
observed ;    Islam  was  only  introduced  into  this  part  of  the 
country  in  1893,  and  in  1908  there  was  one  town  with 
twenty,   and  another  with  twelve   mosques.3     This  rapid 
spread  of  the  Muslim  faith  is  particularly  noticeable  along 
the  banks  of  the  river  Niger  in  Southern  Nigeria ;  a  Christian 
missionary  reports  :  "  When  I  came  out  in  1898  there  were 
few  Mohammedans  to  be  seen  below  Iddah.4     Now  they 
are  everywhere,  excepting  below  Abo,  and  at  the  present 
rate  of  progress  there  will  scarcely  be  a  heathen  village  on 
the  river-banks  by  1910."  5 

There  has  thus  been  much  missionary  work  done  for 
Islam  in  this  part  of  Africa  by  men  who  have  never  taken 
up  the  sword  to  further  their  end, — the  conversion  of  the 
heathen.  Such  have  been  the  members  of  some  of  the  great 
Muhammadan  religious  orders,  which  form  such  a  prominent 
feature  of  the  religious  life  of  Northern  Africa.  Their  efforts 
have  achieved  great  results  during  the  nineteenth  century, 

1  R.  E.  Dennett:  Nigerian  Studies,  pp.  12,  75.     (London,  1910.) 

2  Islam  and  Missions,  pp.  71-3.     The  Moslem  World,  pp.  296-7,  351. 

3  Church  Missionary  Review  (1908),  p.  640. 

4  A  town  on  the  Niger,  just  south  of  the  northern  boundary  of  Southern 
Nigeria. 

5  Church  Missionary  Society  Intelligencer  (1902),  p.  353. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN  AFRICA        327 

and  though  doubtless  much  of  their  work  has  never  been 
recorded,  still  we  have  accounts  of  some  of  the  movements 
initiated  by  them. 

Of  these  one  of  the  earliest  owed  its  inception  to 
Si  Ahmad  b.  Idris,1  who  enjoyed  a  wide  reputation  as 
a  religious  teacher  in  Mecca  from  1797  to  1833,  and 
was  the  spiritual  chief  of  the  Khadriyyah ;  before  his 
death  in  1835  he  sent  one  of  his  disciples,  by  name 
Muhammad  'Uthman  al-Amir  Ghani.  on  a  proselytising 
expedition  into  Africa.  Crossing  the  Red  Sea  to  Kossayr, 
he  made  his  way  inland  to  the  Nile ;  here,  among  a  Muslim 
population,  his  efforts  were  mainly  confined  to  enrolling 
members  of  the  order  to  which  he  belonged,  but  in  his 
journey  up  the  river  he  did  not  meet  with  much  success 
until  he  reached  Aswan ;  from  this  point  up  to  Dongola,  his 
journey  became  quite  a  triumphant  progress;  the  Nubians 
hastened  to  join  his  order,  and  the  royal  pomp  with  which 
he  was  surrounded  produced  an  impressive  effect  on  this 
people,  and  at  the  same  time  the  fame  of  his  miracles 
attracted  to  him  large  numbers  of  followers.  At  Dongola 
Muhammad  'Uthman  left  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to  go  to 
Kordofan,  where  he  made  a  long  stay,  and  it  was  here 
that  his  missionary  work  among  unbelievers  began.  Many 
tribes  in  this  country  and  about  Sennaar  were  still  pagan, 
and  among  these  the  preaching  of  Muhammad  'Uthman 
achieved  a  very  remarkable  success,  and  he  sought  to  make 
his  influence  permanent  by  contracting  several  marriages, 
the  issue  of  which,  after  his  death  in  1853,  carried  on  the 
work  of  the  order  he  founded — called  after  his  name  the 
Amirghaniyyah.2 

A  few  years  before  this  missionary  tour  of  Muhammad 
'Uthman,  the  troops  of  Muhammad  'AH,  the  founder  of  the 
present  dynasty  of  Egypt,  had  begun  to  extend  their 
conquests  into  the  Eastern  Sudan,  and  the  emissaries  of  the 
various  religious  orders  in  Egypt  were  encouraged  by  the 
Egyptian  government,  in  the  hope  that  their  labours  would 
assist  in  the  pacification  of  the  country,  to  carry  on  a 
propaganda  in  this  newly-acquired  territory,  where  they 
laboured  with  so  much  success,  that  the  recent  insurrection 

1  Rinn,  pp.  403-4.  2  Le  Chatelier  (1),  pp.  231-3. 


328  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

in  the  Sudan  under  the  Mahdi  has  been  attributed  to  the 
religious  fervour  their  preaching  excited.1 

In  the  West  of  Africa  two  orders  have  been  especially 
instrumental  in  the  spread  of  Islam,  the  Qadiriyyah  and 
the  Tijaniyyah.     The  former,  the  most  widespread  of  the 
religious  orders  of  Islam,  was  founded  in  the  twelfth  century 
by  'Abd  al-Qadir  al-Jilani,  said  to  be  the  most  popular  and 
most  universally  revered  of  all  the  saints  of  Islam,2 — and 
was  introduced  into  Western  Africa  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
by  emigrants  from  Tuat,  one  of  the  oases  in  the  western 
half  of  the  Sahara;    they  made  Walata  the  first  centre  of 
their  organisation,  but  later  on  their  descendants  were  driven 
away  from  this  town,  and  took  refuge  in  Timbuktu,  further 
to  the  east.     In  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  great  spiritual  revival  that  was  so  profoundly  influencing 
the  Muhammadan  world,  stirred  up  the  Qadiriyyah  of  the 
Sahara  and  the  Western  Sudan  to  renewed  life  and  energy, 
and  before  long,  learned  theologians  or  small  colonies  of 
persons  affiliated  to  the  order  were  to  be  found  scattered 
throughout  the  Western  Sudan  from  the  Senegal  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Niger.     The  chief  centres  of  their  missionary 
organisation    are  in    Kanka,    Timbo     (Futah-Jallon)    and 
Musardu    (in   the    Mandingo    country).3      These    initiates 
formed  centres   of    Islamic  influence   in    the    midst   of  a 
pagan  population,  among  whom  they  received  a  welcome 
as  public  scribes,  legists,  writers  of  amulets,  and   school- 
masters :     gradually   they   would    acquire    influence    over 
their  new  surroundings,  and  isolated   cases  of  conversion 
would  soon  grow  into  a  little  band  of  converts,  the  most 
promising  of  whom  would  often  be  sent  to  complete  their 
studies  at  the  chief  centres  of  the  order,  or  even  to  the  schools 
of  Kairwan  or  Tripoli,  or  to  the  universities  of  Fez  and 
al-Azhar  in  Cairo.4    Here  they  might  remain  for  several 
years,  until  they  had  perfected  their  theological  studies,  and 
would  then  return  to  their  native  place,  fully  equipped  for 
the  work  of  spreading  the  faith  among  their  fellow-country- 
men.    In  this  way  a  leaven  has  been  introduced  into  the 
midst  of  fetish- worshippers  and  idolaters,  which  has  gradually 

1  Le  Chatelier  (2),  pp.  89-91.  2  Rinn,  p.  175. 

3  Bonet-Maury,  p.  239.  4  Id.  p.  230. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN  AFRICA       329 

spread  the  faith  of  Islam  surely  and  steadily,  though  by 
almost  imperceptible  degrees.  Up  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  most  of  the  schools  in  the  Sudan  were 
founded  and  conducted  by  teachers  trained  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Qadiriyyah  and  their  organisation  provided 
for  a  regular  and  continuous  system  of  propaganda  among 
the  heathen  tribes.  The  missionary  work  of  this  order 
has  been  entirely  of  a  peaceful  character,  and  has  relied 
wholly  on  personal  example  and  precept,  on  the  influence 
of  the  teacher  over  his  pupils,  and  on  the  spread  of  educa- 
tion.1 In  this  way  the  Qadiriyyah  missionaries  of  the  Sudan 
have  shown  themselves  true  to  the  principles  of  their 
founder  and  the  universal  tradition  of  their  order.  For  the 
guiding  principles  that  governed  the  life  of  'Abd  al-Qadir 
were  love  of  his  neighbour  and  toleration  :  though  kings 
and  men  of  wealth  showered  their  gifts  upon  him,  his 
boundless  charity  kept  him  always  poor,  and  in  none  of  his 
books  or  precepts  are  to  be  found  any  expressions  of  ill-will 
or  enmity  towards  the  Christians;  whenever  he  spoke  of 
the  people  of  the  Book,  it  was  only  to  express  his  sorrow  for 
their  religious  errors,  and  to  pray  that  God  might  enlighten 
them.  This  tolerant  attitude  he  bequeathed  as  a  legacy 
to  his  disciples,  and  it  has  been  a  striking  characteristic  of 
his  followers  in  all  ages.2 

The  Tijaniyyah,  belonging  to  an  order  founded  in  Algiers 
towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  have,  since  their 
establishment  in  the  Sudan  about  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  pursued  the  same  missionary  methods  as  the 
Qadiriyyah,  and  their  numerous  schools  have  contributed 
largely  to  the  propagation  of  the  faith;  but,  unlike  the 
former,  they  have  not  refrained  from  appealing  to  the  sword 
to  assist  in  the  furtherance  of  their  scheme  of  conversion, 
and,  unfortunately  for  a  true  estimate  of  the  missionary 
work  of  Islam  in  Western  Africa,  the  fame  of  their  Jihads 
or  religious  wars  has  thrown  into  the  shade  the  successes  of 
the  peaceful  propagandist,  though  the  labours  of  the  latter^ 
have  been  more  effectual  towards  the  spread  of  Islam  than 
the  creation  of  petty,  short-lived  dynasties.  The  records 
of  campaigns,  especially  when  they  have  interfered  with  the 

1  Le  Chatelier  (2),  pp.  100-9.  2  Rinn,  p.  174. 


330  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

commercial  projects  or  schemes  of  conquest  of  the  white 
men,  have  naturally  attracted  the  attention  of  Europeans 
more  than  the  unobtrusive  labours  of  the  Muhammadan 
preacher  and  schoolmaster.  But  the  history  of  such  move- 
ments possesses  this  importance,  that — as  has  often  hap- 
pened in  the  case  of  Christian  missions  also — conquest  has 
opened  out  new  fields  for  missionary  activity,  and  forcibly 
impressed  on  the  minds  of  the  faithful  the  existence  of 
large  tracts  of  country  whose  inhabitants  still  remained 
unconverted. 

The  first  of  these  militant  propagandist  movements  on  the 
part  of  the  members  of  the  Tijaniyyah  order  owes  its 
inception  to  al-Hajj  'Umar,  who  had  been  initiated  into  this 
order  by  a  leader  of  the  sect  whose  acquaintance  he  made  in 
Mecca.  He  was  born  in  1797,  near  Podor  on  the  Lower  Senegal, 
and  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  considerable  endowments 
and  personal  influence,  and  of  a  commanding  presence.  He 
was  the  son  of  a  marabout  and  received  a  careful  religious 
education ;  he  was  already  famed  for  his  learning  and  piety 
when  he  set  out  on  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  in  1827.  He 
did  not  return  to  his  own  country  until  1833,  when  he  com- 
menced an  active  propaganda  of  the  teaching  of  the  Tija- 
niyyah order,  fiercely  attacking  his  co-religionists  for  their 
ignorance  and  their  lukewarmness,  especially  the  adepts  of 
the  Qadiriyyah  order,  whose  toleration  particularly  excited 
his  wrath.  He  traversed  the  Central  Sudan,  winning  many 
adherents  and  receiving  honour  as  a  new  prophet,  until 
about  1841  he  reached  Futah-Jallon,  where  he  armed  his 
followers  and  commenced  a  series  of  proselytising  expeditions 
against  those  tribes  that  still  remained  pagan  about  the 
Upper  Niger  and  the  Senegal.  It  was  in  one  of  these  expedi- 
tions that  he  met  his  death  in  1865.  His  son,  Ahmadu 
Shaykhu,  succeeded  in  holding  together  the  various  provinces 
of  his  father's  kingdom  for  a  few  years  only ;  internal  con- 
flicts and  the  advance  of  the  French  broke  up  the  Tija- 
niyyah empire,  and  their  territories  passed  under  the  rule 
of  France.1 

Some  mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  introduction 
of  Islam  into  this  part  of  Africa.     The  seed  planted  here 

1  Oppel,  pp.  292-3.     Blyden,  p.  10.     Le  Chatelier  (3),  p.  167  sqq. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        331 

by  'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasin  and  his  companions,  was  fructified 
by  continual  contact  with  Muhammadan  merchants  and 
teachers,  and  with  the  Arabs  of  the  oasis  of  al-Hawd  and 
others.  A  traveller  of  the  fifteenth  century  tells  how  the 
Arabs  strove  to  teach  the  Negro  chiefs  the  law  of  Muhammad, 
pointing  out  how  shameful  a  thing  it  was  for  them,  being 
chiefs,  to  live  without  any  of  God's  laws,  and  to  do  as  the 
base  folk  did  who  lived  without  any  law  at  all.  From  which 
it  would  appear  that  these  early  missionaries  took  advantage 
of  the  imposing  character  of  the  Muslim  religion  and  con- 
stitution to  impress  the  minds  of  these  uncivilised  savages.1 
We  have  ampler  details  of  a  more  recent  movement  of  the 
same  kind,  which  had  been  set  on  foot  in  the  south  of  Sene- 
gambia  by  a  Mandingo,  named  Samudu,  commonly  known 
by  the  name  Samory,  a  pagan  soldier  of  fortune  born  about 
1846,  who  became  a  Muhammadan  early  in  the  course  of  his 
career  and  founded  an  empire,  south  of  Senegambia,  in  the 
country  watered  by  the  upper  basin  of  the  Niger  and  its 
tributaries.  An  Arabic  account  of  the  career  of  Samory, 
written  by  a  native  chronicler,  gives  us  some  interesting 
details  of  his  achievements.  It  begins  as  follows  :  "  This 
is  an  account  of  the  Jihad  of  the  Imam  Ahmadu  Samudu,  a 
Mandingo.  .  .  .  God  conferred  upon  him  His  help  con- 
tinually after  he  began  the  work  of  visiting  the  idolatrous 
pagans,  who  dwell  between  the  sea  and  the  country  of 
Wasulu,  with  a  view  of  inviting  them  to  follow  the  religion 
of  God,  which  is  Islam.  Know  all  ye  who  read  this — 
that  the  first  effort  of  the  Imam  Samudu  was  a  town 
named  Fulindiyah.  Following  the  Book  and  the  Law 
and  the  Traditions,  he  sent  messengers  to  the  king  at 
that  town,  Sindidu  by  name,  inviting  him  to  submit  to 
his  government,  abandon  the  worship  of  idols  and  worship 
one  God,  the  Exalted,  the  True,  whose  service  is  profit- 
able to  His  people  in  this  world  and  in  the  next;  but 
they  refused  to  submit.  Then  he  imposed  a  tribute  upon 
them,  as  the  Qur'an  commands  on  this  subject;  but  they 
persisted  in  their  blindness  and  deafness.  The  Imam  then 
collected  a  small  force  of  about  five  hundred  men,  brave  and 

1  Delle  Navigationi  di  Messer  Alvise  da  Ca  da  Mosto.     (a.d.    1454.) 
Ramusio,  tome  i.  p.  101. 


332  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

valiant,  for  the  Jihad,  and  he  fought  against  the  town,  and 
the  Lord  helped  him  against  them  and  gave  him  the  victory 
over  them,  and  he  pursued  them  with  his  horses  until  they 
submitted.  Nor  will  they  return  to  their  idolatry,  for  now 
all  their  children  are  in  schools  being  taught  the  Qur'an, 
and  a  knowledge  of  religion  and  civilisation.  Praise  be  to 
God  for  this."  x  It  is  not  possible  here  to  trace  the 
course  of  his  conquests,  which  were  marked  by  whole- 
sale massacres  and  devastation.2  He  reached  the  height 
of  his  power  about  1881,  shortly  after  which  he  came 
in  conflict  with  the  French,  who  took  him  prisoner  in 
1898  after  a  series  of  harassing  campaigns.  He  died 
in  1900.  Though  the  effect  of  his  conquests  was  the 
destruction  of  large  numbers  of  pagans  who  were  massacred 
by  his  ruthless  armies,  while  others  were  terrified  into 
a  nominal  acceptance  of  Islam,  he  does  not  appear 
to  have  put  before  him  the  same  distinctly  religious 
aim  as  al-Hajj  'Umar  did.3  He  left  to  the  Qadiriyyah 
marabouts  the  task  of  propaganda,  and  they  with  their 
accustomed  traditions  of  toleration  are  said  to  have  done 
much  to  mitigate  the  savagery  of  his  proceedings.4  They 
opened  schools  in  the  conquered  towns,  established  there 
the  organisation  of  their  order,  and  both  instructed  the  new 
converts  and  sought  to  win  fresh  ones. 

With  regard  to  these  militant  movements  of  Muham- 
madan  propagandism,  it  is  important  to  notice  that  it  is 
not  the  military  successes  and  territorial  conquests  that  have 
most  contributed  to  the  progress  of  Islam  in  these  parts; 
for  it  has  been  pointed  out  that,  outside  the  limits  of  those 
fragments  of  the  empire  of  al-Hajj  'Umar  that  have  defini- 
tively remained  in  the  hands  of  his  successors,  the  forced 
conversions  that  he  made  have  quickly  been  forgotten,  and 
in  spite  of  the  momentary  grandeur  of  his  successes  and 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  armies,  very  few  traces  remain  of 
this  armed  propaganda.5     The   real    importance   of   these 

1  Blyden,  pp.  357-60. 

2  This  has  been  set  forth  in  detail  by  Le  Chatelier  (3),  p.  225  sqq. 

3  Le  Chatelier  (3),  p.  237.  "  Samory  n'intervint  pas  directement  dans 
la  question  religieuse."  L.  G.  Binger  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion,  as 
the  result  of  personal  acquaintance  with  Samory.  (Le  Peril  de  1' Islam, 
p.  20.)     (Paris,  1906.)  4  Le  Chatelier  (3),  pp.  238-40. 

5  Le  Chatelier  (2),  p.  112.     R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  xii.  p.  22. 


THE   SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        333 

movements  in  the  missionary  history  of  Islam  in  Western 
Africa  is  the  religious  enthusiasm  they  stirred  up,  which 
exhibited  itself  in  a  widespread  missionary  activity  of  a 
purely  peaceful  character  among  the  heathen  populations. 
These  Jihads,  rightly  looked  upon,  are  but  incidents  in  the 
modern  Islamic  revival  and  are  by  no  means  characteristic 
of  the  forces  and  activities  that  have  been  really  operative 
in  the  promulgation  of  Islam  in  Africa  :  indeed,  unless 
followed  up  by  distinctly  missionary  efforts  they  would 
have  proved  almost  wholly  ineffectual  in  the  creation  of  a 
true  Muslim  community.  In  fact,  the  devastating  wars  and 
cruel  violence  of  conquerors  such  as  al-Hajj  'Umar  and 
Samory  and  especially  the  emissaries  of  the  Tijaniyyah  have 
caused  the  faith  of  Islam  to  be  bitterly  hated  by  the  pagan 
tribes  of  the  Sudan  in  the  countries  watered  by  the  Senegal 
and  the  Niger.  Hostility  to  the  Muslim  faith  has  almost 
assumed  with  them  the  form  of  a  national  movement,  but 
still  this  Muhammadan  propaganda  has  spread  the  faith  of 
the  Prophet  in  many  parts  of  Guinea  and  Senegambia,  to 
which  the  Fulbe  1  and  merchants  from  the  Hausa  country 
in  their  frequent  trading  expeditions  have  brought  the 
knowledge  of  their  religion,  and  have  succeeded  during 
the  last  and  the  present  century  in  winning  large  numbers 
of  converts.  Especially  noteworthy  is  the  activity  of 
those  Qadiriyyah  preachers  and  Muslim  traders  who  have 
won  fresh  converts  to  their  faith  since  the  French  occupation 
has  brought  peace  to  the  country ;  this  peaceful  penetration 
has  been  facilitated  in  the  French  Sudan,  as  in  other  parts 
of  Africa  that  have  recently  come  under  the  sway  of  Euro- 
pean powers,  by  the  consideration  shown  by  French  officials 
to  the  educated  classes,  who  are  of  course  all  Muham- 
madans,  and  by  the  open  contempt  with  which  the 
degraded  habits  and  superstitions  of  the  pagan  fetish- 
worshippers  are  regarded.2 

But  the  proselytising  work  of  the  order  that  is  now  to  be 
described  has  never  in  any  way  been  connected  with  violence 
or  war  and  has  employed  in  the  service  of  religion  only  the 

1  "  The  Fulanis  are  all  fervent  Mohammedans.     Wherever  there  are 
Fulanis  there  will  be  found  a  mosque."     (Haywood,  p.  200.) 

2  Le  Chatelier  (3),  pp.  231,  273,  303.     Westermann,  pp.  632-3. 


334  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

arts  of  peace  and  persuasion.  In  1837  a  religious  society 
was  founded  by  an  Algerian  jurisconsult,  named  Sidi 
Muhammad  b.  'All  al-Sanusi,  with  the  object  of  reforming 
Islam  and  spreading  the  faith;  before  his  death  in  1859, 
he  had  succeeded  in  establishing,  by  the  sheer  force  of  his 
genius  and  without  the  shedding  of  blood,  a  theocratic  state, 
to  which  his  followers  render  devoted  allegiance  and  the 
limits  of  which  are  every  day  being  extended  by  his  suc- 
cessors.1 The  members  of  this  sect  are  bound  by  rigid  rules 
to  carry  out  to  the  full  the  precepts  of  the  Qur'an  in  accord- 
ance with  the  most  strictly  monotheistic  principles,  whereby 
worship  is  to  be  given  to  God  alone,  and  prayers  to  saints 
and  pilgrimages  to  their  tombs  are  absolutely  interdicted. 
They  must  abstain  from  coffee  and  tobacco,  avoid  all  inter- 
course with  Jews  or  Christians,  contribute  a  certain  portion 
of  their  income  to  the  funds  of  the  society,  if  they  do  not 
give  themselves  up  entirely  to  its  service,  and  devote  all 
their  energies  to  the  advancement  of  Islam,  resisting  at  the 
same  time  any  concessions  to  European  influences.  This 
sect  is  spread  over  the  whole  of  North  Africa,  having  religious 
houses  scattered  about  the  country  from  Egypt  to  Morocco, 
and  far  into  the  interior,  in  the  oases  of  the  Sahara  and  the 
Sudan.  The  centre  of  its  organisation  was  in  the  oasis  of 
Jaghabiib  2  in  the  Libyan  desert  between  Egypt  and  Tripoli, 
where  every  year  hundreds  of  missionaries  were  trained  and 
sent  out  as  preachers  of  Islam  to  all  parts  of  northern 
Africa.  It  is  to  the  religious  house  in  this  village  that  all 
the  branch  establishments  (said  to  be  121  in  number) 
looked  for  counsel  and  instruction  in  all  matters  concern- 
ing the  management  and  extension  of  this  vast  theocracy, 
which  embraced  in  a  marvellous  organisation  thousands 
of  persons  of  numerous  races  and  nations,  otherwise 
separated  from  one  another  by  vast  differences  of  geographi- 
cal situation  and  worldly  interests.  For  the  success  that 
has  been  achieved  by  the  zealous  and  energetic  emissaries 

1  Muhammad  b.  'Uthman  al  Hasha'ishi,  p.  84  sqq. 

2  In  1895  Sidi  al-Mahdl,  the  son  and  successor  of  Sidi  Muhammad  al- 
SaniisI,  migrated  to  Kufra,  as  being  more  central  than  Jaghabiib  (Muham- 
mad b.  'Uthman  al-Hasha'ishi,  pp.  m-15),  but  later  went  further  south 
to  the  region  of  Borku  and  Tibesti,  where  he  died  in  1902.  The  head  of  the 
order  in  1908  was  Sidi  Ahmad,  a  relative  of  the  founder.  (J.  C.  E.  Falls  : 
Drei  Jahre  in  der  Libyschen  Wuste,  p.  274.)     (Freiburg,  191 1.) 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM  IN  AFRICA        335 

of  this  association  is  enormous;    convents  of  the  order  are 
to  be  found  not  only  all  over  the  north  of  Africa  from  Egypt 
to   Morocco,   throughout   the   Sudan,   in   Senegambia   and 
Somaliland,  but  members  of  the  order  are  to  be  found  also 
in  Arabia,  Mesopotamia  and  the  islands  of  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago.1    Though  primarily  a  movement  of  reform  in  the 
midst  of  Islam  itself,  the  Saniisiyyah  sect  is  also  actively 
proselytising,  and  several  African  tribes  that  were  previously 
pagan  or  merely  nominally  Muslim,  have  since  the  advent 
of  the  emissaries  of  this  sect  in  their  midst,  become  zealous 
adherents  of  the  faith  of  the  Prophet.     Thus,  for  example, 
the  Sanusi  missionaries  laboured  to  convert  that  portion 
of  the  Baele  (a  tribe  inhabiting  the  hill  country  of  Ennedi, 
E.  of  Borku)  which  was  still  heathen,  and  communicated 
their  own  religious  zeal  to  such  other  sections  of  the  tribe 
as  had  only  a  very  superficial  knowledge  of  Islam,  and  were 
Muhammadan  only  in  name ;  2  the  Tedas  of  Tu  or  Tibesti, 
in  the  Sahara,  S.  of  Fezzan,  who  were  likewise  Muham- 
madans  only  in  name  when  the  Saniisiyyah  came  among 
them,   also  bear  witness  to  the  success  of  their  efforts.3 
The  missionaries  of  this  sect  also  carry  on  an  active  propa- 
ganda in  the  Galla  country  and   fresh  workers  are  sent 
thither  every  year  from  Harar,  where  the  Saniisiyyah  are 
very  strong  and  include  among  their  numbers  all  the  chiefs 
in  the  court  of  the  Amir  almost  without  exception.4     In  the 
furtherance  of  their  proselytising  efforts  these  missionaries 
open  schools,  form  settlements  in  the  oases  of  the  desert, 
and— noticeably  in  the  case  of  the  Wadai— they  have  gained 
large  accessions  to  their  numbers  by  the  purchase  of  slaves, 
who  have  been  educated  at  Jaghabub  and  when  deemed 
sufficiently  well  instructed  in  the  tenets  of  the  sect,  enfranch- 
ised and  then  sent  back  to  their  native  country  to  convert, 
their  brethren.5     It  would  appear,  however,  that  the  in- 
fluence of  this  order  is  now  on  the  decline.6 

1  Riedel  (i),  pp.  7,  59,  162. 

2  G.  Nachtigal:    Sahara  und  Sudan,  vol.  ii.  p.  175-     (Berlin,  1879-81.) 

3  Duveyrier,  p.  45.  4  Paulitschke,  p.  214. 

5  H.  Duveyrier  :  La  Confrerie  musulmane  de  Sidi  Mohammed  Ben  Ah 
Es-Senousi,  passim.  (Paris,  1886.)  Louis  Rinn  :  Marabouts  et  Khouans, 
pp.  481-513.  N.  Slousch  :  Les  Senoussiya  en  Tripohtaine.  (R.  du  M.  M., 
vol.  i.  p.  169  sqq.).  For  a  bibliography  of  the  Saniisiyyah  movement,  see 
Der  Islam,  hi.  pp.  141-2,  312. 

6  R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  i.  p.  181 ;   vol.  viii.  pp.  64-5. 


336  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Slight  as  these  records  are  of  the  missionary  labours  of  the 
Muslims  among  the  pagan  tribes  of  the  Sudan,  they  are  of 
importance  in  view  of  the  general  dearth  of  information 
regarding  the  spread  of  Islam  in  this  part  of  Africa.  But 
while  documentary  evidence  is  wanting,  the  Muhammadan 
communities  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  fetish-worshippers 
and  idolaters,  as  representatives  of  a  higher  faith  and  civilisa- 
tion, are  a  living  testimony  to  the  proselytising  labours 
of  the  Muhammadan  missionaries,  and  (especially  on  the 
south-western  borderland  of  Islamic  influence)  present  a 
striking  contrast  to  the  pagan  tribes  demoralised  by  the 
European  gin  traffic.  This  contrast  has  been  well  indicated 
by  a  modern  traveller,1  in  speaking  of  the  degraded  con- 
dition of  the  tribes  of  the  Lower  Niger  :  "In  steaming  up 
the  river  (i.  e.  the  Niger),  I  saw  little  in  the  first  200  miles 
to  alter  my  views,  for  there  luxuriated  in  congenial  union 
fetishism,  cannibalism  and  the  gin  trade.  But  as  I  left 
behind  me  the  low-lying  coast  region,  and  found  myself 
near  the  southern  boundary  of  what  is  called  the  Central 
Sudan,  I  observed  an  ever-increasing  improvement  in  the 
appearance  of  the  character  of  the  native;  cannibalism 
disappeared,  fetishism  followed  in  its  wake,  the  gin  trade 
largely  disappeared,  while  on  the  other  hand,  clothes 
became  more  voluminous  and  decent,  cleanliness  the  rule, 
while  their  outward  more  dignified  bearing  still  further 
betokened  a  moral  regeneration.  Everything  indicated  a 
leavening  of  some  higher  element,  an  element  that  was 
clearly  taking  a  deep  hold  on  the  negro  nature  and  making 
him  a  new  man.  That  element  you  will  perhaps  be 
surprised  to  learn  is  Mahommedanism.  On  passing  Lokoja 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Benue  with  the  Niger,  I  left  behind 
me  the  missionary  outposts  of  Islam,  and  entering  the 
Central  Sudan,  I  found  myself  in  a  comparatively  well- 
governed  empire,  teeming  with  a  busy  populace  of  keen 
traders,  expert  manufacturers  of  cloth,  brass  work  and 
leather;  a  people,  in  fact,  who  have  made  enormous 
advances  towards  civilisation." 

In  order  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  missionary  activity 
of  Islam  in  Nigritia,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  while  on 

1  Joseph  Thomson  (2),  p.  185. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        337 

the  coast  and  along  the  southern  boundary  of  the  sphere 
of  Islamic  influence,  the  Muhammadan  missionary  is  the 
pioneer  of  his  religion,  there  is  still  left  behind  him  a  vast 
field  for  Muslim  propaganda  in  the  inland  countries  that 
stretch  away  to  the  north  and  the  east,  though  it  is  long 
since  Islam  took  firm  root  in  this  soil.  Some  sections  of  the 
Funj,  the  predominant  Negro  race  of  Sennaar,  are  partly 
Muhammadan  and  partly  heathen,  and  Muhammadan 
merchants  from  Nubia  are  attempting  the  conversion  of 
the  latter.1 

The  pagan  tribe  of  the  Jukun,2  whose  once  powerful 
kingdom  disappeared  before  the  victorious  development  of 
the  Fulbe,  has  withstood  the  advancing  influence  of  Muham- 
madanism,  though  the  foreign  minister  of  their  king  has 
always  been  a  Muslim  and  colonies  of  Hausas  and  other 
Muhammadans  have  settled  among  them ;  but  these  Muslim 
settlers  do  not  succeed  in  making  any  converts  from  among 
the  Jukun,  whose  traditions  of  their  past  greatness  make 
them  cling  to  the  national  faith  whose  spiritual  headship  is 
vested  in  their  king.3 

It  would  be  easy  also  to  enumerate  many  sections  of  the 
population  of  the  Sudan  and  Senegambia,  that  still  retain 
their  heathen  habits  and  beliefs,  or  cover  these  only  with 
a  slight  veneer  of  Muhammadan  observance  even  though 
they  have  been  (in  most  cases)  surrounded  for  centuries  by 
the  followers  of  the  Prophet.  The  Konnohs,  an  offshoot  of 
the  great  tribe  of  the  Mandingos,  are  still  largely  pagan, 
and  it  is  only  in  recent  years  that  Islam  has  been  making 
progress  among  them.4  Consequently,  the  remarkable  zeal 
for  missionary  work  that  has  displayed  itself  among  the 
Muhammadans  of  these  parts  during  the  present  century, 
has  not  far  to  go  in  order  to  find  abundant  scope  for  its 
activity.  Hence  the  importance,  in  the  missionary  history 
of  Islam  in  this  continent,  of  the  movements  of  reform  in 
the  Muslim  religion  itself  and  the  revivals  of  religious  life, 
to  which  attention  has  been  drawn  above. 

The  West  Coast  is  another  field  for  Muhammadan  mis- 

1  Oppel,  p.  303.  2  In  the  Muri  Province  of  Northern  Nigeria. 

3  Journal  of  the  African  Society,  vol.  vii.  pp.  379-81- 

4  Haywood,  p.  33. 


338  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

sionary  enterprise  where  Islam  finds  itself  confronted 
with  a  vast  population  still  unconverted,  in  spite  of  the 
progress  it  has  made  on  the  Guinea  Coast,  in  Sierra 
Leone  and  Liberia,  in  which  last  there  are  more  Muham- 
madans  than  heathen.  One  of  the  earliest  notices  of 
Muslim  missionary  activity  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Sierra  Leone  is  to  be  found  in  a  petition  for  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Sierra  Leone  Company,  ordered  to  be 
printed  by  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the  25th  May, 
1802.  "  Not  more  than  seventy  years  ago,  a  small  num- 
ber of  Mahomedans  established  themselves  in  a  country 
about  forty  miles  to  the  northward  of  Sierra  Leone,  called 
from  them  the  Mandingo  Country.  As  is  the  practice 
of  the  professors  of  that  religion  they  formed  schools,  in 
which  the  Arabic  language  and  the  doctrines  of  Mahomet 
were  taught,  and  the  customs  of  Mahomedans,  particularly 
that  of  not  selling  any  of  their  own  religion  as  slaves,  were 
adopted.  Laws  founded  on  the  Koran  were  introduced. 
Those  practices  which  chiefly  contribute  to  depopulate  the 
coast  were  eradicated,  and  in  spite  of  many  intestine  con- 
vulsions, a  great  comparative  degree  of  civilisation,  union 
and  security  were  introduced.  Population,  in  consequence, 
rapidly  increased  and  the  whole  power  of  that  part  of  the 
country  in  which  they  are  settled  has  gradually  fallen  into 
their  hands.  Those  who  have  been  taught  in  their  schools 
are  succeeding  to  wealth  and  power  in  the  neighbouring 
countries,  and  carry  with  them  a  considerable  portion  of  their 
religion  and  laws.  Other  chiefs  are  adopting  the  name 
assumed  by  these  Mahomedans,  on  account  of  the  respect 
which  attends  it ;  and  the  religion  of  Islam  seems  likely  to 
diffuse  itself  peaceably  over  the  whole  district  in  which  the 
colony  is  situated,  carrying  with  it  those  advantages  which 
seem  ever  to  have  attended  its  victory  over  Negro  super- 
stition." x  In  the  Mendi  country,  about  one  hundred  miles 
south  of  Sierra  Leone,  Islam  appears  to  have  found  an 
entrance  only  in  the  present  century,  but  to  be  now  making 
steady  progress.  "  The  propagandism  is  not  conducted  by 
any  special  order  of  priests  set  apart  for  the  purpose,  but 

1  Claude  George  :  The  Rise  of  British  West  Africa,  pp.  120-1.     (London, 
1902.) 


THE  SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        339 

every  Musalman  is  an  active  missionary.  Some  half  a  dozen 
of  them,  more  or  less,  meeting  in  a  town,  where  they  intend 
to  reside  for  any  length  of  time,  soon  run  up  a  mosque  and 
begin  work.  They  first  approach  the  chief  of  the  town  and 
obtain  his  consent  to  their  intended  act,  and  perhaps  his 
promise  to  become  an  adherent.  They  teach  him  their 
prayers  in  Arabic,  or  as  much  as  he  can,  or  cares  to,  commit 
to  memory.  They  put  him  through  the  forms  and  cere- 
monies used  in  praying,  forbid  him  the  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages — a  restriction  as  often  observed  as  not — and  lo  ! 
the  man  is  a  convert."  x  On  the  Guinea  Coast,  Muslim 
influences  are  spread  chiefly  by  Hausa  traders  who  are  to  be 
found  in  all  the  commercial  towns  on  this  coast ;  whenever 
they  form  a  settlement,  they  at  once  build  a  mosque  and 
by  their  devout  behaviour,  and  their  superior  culture,  they 
impress  the  heathen  inhabitants;  whole  tribes  of  fetish- 
worshippers  pass  over  to  Islam  as  the  result  of  their  imita- 
tion of  what  they  recognise  to  be  a  higher  civilisation  than 
their  own,  without  any  particular  efforts  being  necessary  for 
persuading  them.2 

In  Ashanti  there  was  a  nucleus  of  a  Muhammadan  popula- 
tion to  be  found  as  early  as  1750  and  the  missionaries  of 
Islam  have  laboured  there  ever  since  with  slow  but  sure 
success,3  as  they  find  a  ready  welcome  in  the  country  and 
have  gained  for  themselves  considerable  influence  at  the 
court;  by  means  of  their  schools  they  get  a  hold  on  the 
minds  of  the  younger  generation,  and  there  are  said  to  be 
significant  signs  that  Islam  will  become  the  predominant 
religion  in  Ashanti,  as  already  many  of  the  chiefs  have 
adopted  it.4  In  Dahomey  and  the  Gold  Coast,  Islam  is  daily 
making  fresh  progress,  and  even  when  the  heathen  chieftains 
do  not  themselves  embrace  it,  they  very  frequently  allow 
themselves  to  come  under  the  influence  of  its  missionaries, 
who  know  how  to  take  advantage  of  this  ascendancy  in  their 
labours  among  the  common  people.5  Dahomey  and  Ashanti 
are  the   most    important    kingdoms    in   this    part  of   the 

1  Islam  and  Missions,  pp.  73-4. 

2  Lippert :   Tiber  die  Bedeutung  der  Haussanation  fur  unsere  Togo-  und 
Kamerunkolonie,  p.  200.     MSOS,  Band  x.  (i9°7).  Abteilung  III. 

3  Waltz  :  II"  Theil,  p.  250. 

4  C.  S.  Salmon,  p.  891.  6  Pierre  Bouche,  p.  256. 


340  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

continent  that  are  still  subject  to  pagan  rulers,  and  their 
conversion  is  said  to  be  a  question  of  a  short  time  only.1 
In  Lagos  there  are  well-nigh  10,000  Muslims,  and  all  the 
trading  stations  of  the  West  Coast  include  in  their  popula- 
tions numbers  of  Musalmans  belonging  to  the  superior  Negro 
tribes,  such  as  the  Fulbe,  the  Mandingos  and  the  Hausa. 
When  these  men  come  down  to  the  cities  of  the  coast,  as 
they  do  in  considerable  numbers,  either  as  traders  or  to 
serve  as  troops  in  the  armies  of  the  European  powers,  they 
cannot  fail  to  impress  by  their  bold  and  independent  bearing 
the  Negro  of  the  coast-land;  he  sees  that  the  believers  in 
the  Qur'an  are  everywhere  respected  by  European  governors, 
officials  and  merchants ;  they  are  not  so  far  removed  from 
him  in  race,  appearance,  dress  or  manners  as  to  make 
admission  into  their  brotherhood  impossible  to  him,  and  to 
him  too  is  offered  a  share  in  their  privileges  on  condition 
of  conversion  to  their  faith.2  As  soon  as  the  pagan  Negro, 
however  obscure  or  degraded,  shows  himself  willing  to  accept 
the  teachings  of  the  Prophet,  he  is  at  once  admitted  as  an 
equal  into  their  society,  and  admission  into  the  brotherhood 
of  Islam  is  not  a  privilege  grudgingly  granted,  but  one  freely 
offered  by  zealous  and  eager  proselytisers.  For,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Senegal  to  Lagos,  over  two  thousand  miles, 
there  is  said  to  be  hardly  any  town  of  importance  on  the 
seaboard  in  which  there  is  not  at  least  one  mosque,  with 
active  propagandists  of  Islam,  often  working  side  by  side 
with  the  teachers  of  Christianity.3 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  history  of  the  spread  of 
Islam  on  the  other  side  of  the  continent  of  Africa,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  were  in  closer  proximity  to  the 
land  where  this  faith  had  its  birth.  The  facts  recorded 
respecting  the  early  settlements  of  the  Arabs  on  the 
East  Coast  are  very  meagre ;  according  to  an  Arabic 
chronicle  which  the  Portuguese  found  in  Kiloa 4  when 
that  town  was  sacked  by  Don  Francisco  d' Almeida  in  1505, 
the  first  settlers  were  a  body  of  Arabs  who  were  driven  into 
exile  because  they  followed  the  heretical  teachings  of  a 

1  Blyden,  p.  357.  2    C.  S.  Salmon,  p.  887. 

3  Blyden,  p.  202.    Westermann,  pp.  633-4. 

4  Situated  on  an  island  about  20  S.  of  Zanzibar. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA  341 

certain  Zayd,1  a  descendant  of  the  Prophet,  after  whom  they 
were  called  Emozaydij  (probably  2oj,jj  alt  or  people  of 
Zayd).  The  Zayd  here  referred  to  is  probably  Zayd  b.  'AH, 
a  grandson  of  Husayn  and  so  great-grandson  of  'AIT,  the 
nephew  of  Muhammad  :  in  the  reign  of  the  caliph  Hisham 
he  claimed  to  be  the  Imam  Mahdi  and  stirred  up  a  revolt 
among  the  Shi'ah  faction,  but  was  defeated  and  put  to  death 
in  a.h.  122  (a.d.  740). 2 

They  seem  to  have  lived  in  considerable  dread  of  the 
original  pagan  inhabitants  of  the  country,  but  succeeded 
gradually  in  extending  their  settlements  along  the  coast, 
until  the  arrival  of  another  band  of  fugitives  who  came  from 
the  Arabian  side  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  not  far  from  the  island 
of  Bahrayn.  These  came  in  three  ships  under  the  leadership 
of  seven  brothers,  in  order  to  escape  from  the  persecution 
of  the  king  of  Lasah,3  a  city  hard  by  the  dwelling-place  of 
their  tribe.  The  first  town  they  built  was  Magadaxo,4 
which  afterwards  rose  to  such  power  as  to  assume  lordship 
over  all  the  Arabs  of  the  coast.  But  the  original  settlers, 
the  Emozaydij,  belonging  as  they  did  to  a  different  Muham- 
madan  sect,  being  Shi'ahs,  while  the  new-comers  were  Sunnis, 
were  unwilling  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  rulers  of 
Magadaxo,  and  retired  into  the  interior,  where  they  became 
merged  into  the  native  population,  intermarrying  with 
them  and  adopting  their  manners  and  customs.5 

Magadaxo  was  founded  about  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century  and  remained  the  most  powerful  city  on  this  coast 
for  more  than  seventy  years,  when  the  arrival  of  another 
expedition  from  the  Persian  Gulf  led  to  the  establishment 
of  a  rival  settlement  further  south.  The  leader  of  this 
expedition  was  named  'All,  one  of  the  seven  sons  of  a 
certain  Sultan  Hasan  of  Shiraz  :  because  his  mother  was 
an  Abyssinian,  he  was  looked  down  upon  with  contempt 
by  his  brothers,  whose  cruel  treatment  of  him  after  the 
death  of  their  father,  determined  him  to  leave  his  native 

1  "  Hum  Mouro  chamado  Zaide,  que  foi  neto  de  Hocem  filho  de  Ale  o 
sobrinho  de  Mahamed."     (De  Barros,  Dec.  i.  Liv.  viii.  cap.  iv.  p.  211.) 

2  Ibn  Khaldun.  vol.  iii.  pp.  98-100. 

3  Possibly  a  mistake  for  al-Hasa.      See  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  ii.  pp.  247-8. 

4  Or  (to  give  it  its  Arabic  name)  Maqdishu. 

5  J.  de  Barros :  Dec.  i.  Liv.  viii.  cap.  iv.  pp.  211-12. 


342  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

land  and  seek  a  home  elsewhere.  Accordingly,  with  his 
wife  and  children  and  a  small  body  of  followers,  he  set  sail 
from  the  island  of  Ormuz,  and  avoiding  Magadaxo,  whose 
inhabitants  belonged  to  a  different  sect,  and  having  heard 
that  gold  was  to  be  found  on  the  Zanzibar  coast,  he  pushed 
on  to  the  south  and  founded  the  city  of  Kiloa,  where  he 
could  maintain  a  position  of  independence  and  be  free  from 
the  interference  of  his  predecessors  further  north.1 

In  this  way  a  number  of  Arab  towns  sprang  up  along  the 
east  coast  from  the  Gulf  of  Aden  to  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn, 
on  the  fringe  of  what  was  called  by  the  mediaeval  Arab 
geographers  the  country  of  the  Zanj.  Whatever  efforts 
may  have  been  made  by  the  Muhammadan  settlers  to 
convert  the  Zanj,  no  record  of  them  seems  to  have  survived. 
There  is  a  curious  story  preserved  in  an  old  collection  of 
travels  written  probably  in  the  early  part  of  the  tenth 
century,  which  represents  Islam  as  having  been  introduced 
among  one  of  these  tribes  by  the  king  of  it  himself.  An 
Arab  trading  vessel  was  driven  out  of  its  course  by  a  tempest 
in  the  year  a.d.  922  and  carried  to  the  country  of  the  man- 
eating  Zanj,  where  the  crew  expected  certain  death.  On  the 
contrary,  the  king  of  the  place  received  them  kindly  and 
entertained  them  hospitably  for  several  months,  while  they 
disposed  of  their  merchandise  on  advantageous  terms ;  but 
the  merchants  repaid  his  kindness  with  foul  treachery,  by 
seizing  him  and  his  attendants  when  they  came  on  board 
to  bid  them  farewell,  and  then  carrying  them  off  as  slaves  to 
Omam.  Some  years  later  the  same  merchants  were  driven 
by  a  storm  to  the  same  port,  where  they  were  recognised 
by  the  natives  who  surrounded  them  in  their  canoes ;  giving 
themselves  up  for  lost  this  time,  they  repeated  for  one 
another  the  prayers  for  the  dead.  They  were  taken  before 
the  king,  whom  they  discovered  to  their  surprise  and  con- 
fusion to  be  the  same  they  had  so  shamefully  treated  some 
years  before.  Instead,  however,  of  taking  vengeance  upon 
them  for  their  treacherous  conduct,  he  spared  their  lives 
and  allowed  them  to  sell  their  goods,  but  rejected  with  scorn 
the  rich  presents  they  offered.     Before  they  left,  one  of  the 

1  De  Barros,  id.  pp.  224-5.  See  also  Justus  Strandes  :  Die  Portugiesen- 
zeit  von  Deutsch-  und  EngHsch-Ostafrika,  p.  81  sqq.     (Berlin,  1899.) 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN  AFRICA       343 

party  ventured  to  ask  the  king  to  tell  the  story  of  his  escape. 
He  described  how  he  had  been  taken  as  a  slave  to  Basrah 
and  thence  to  Baghdad,  where  he  was  converted  to  Islam 
and  instructed  in  the  faith;  escaping  from  his  master,  he 
joined  a  caravan  of  pilgrims  going  to  Mecca,  and  after 
performing  the  prescribed  rites,  reached  Cairo  and  made  his 
way  up  the  Nile  in  the  direction  of  his  own  country,  which 
he  reached  at  length  after  encountering  many  dangers  and 
having  been  more  than  once  enslaved.  Restored  once  again 
to  his  kingdom,  he  taught  his  people  the  faith  of  Islam; 
"  and  now  I  rejoice  in  that  God  hath  given  to  me  and  to  my 
people  the  knowledge  of  Islam  and  the  true  faith;  to  no 
other  in  the  land  of  the  Zanj  hath  this  grace  been  vouch- 
safed; and  it  is  because  you  have  been  the  cause  of  my 
conversion,  that  I  pardon  you.  Tell  the  Muslims  that  they 
may  come  to  our  country,  and  that  we — Muslims  like 
themselves — will  treat  them  as  brothers."  * 

From  the  same  source  we  learn  that  even  at  this  early 
period,  this  coast-land  was  frequented  by  large  numbers  of 
Arab  traders,  yet  in  spite  of  centuries  of  intercourse  with 
the  followers  of  Islam,  the  original  inhabitants  of  this  coast 
(with  the  exception  of  the  Somalis)  have  been  remarkably 
little  influenced  by  this  religion.  Even  before  the  Portu- 
guese conquests  of  the  sixteenth  century,  what  few  con- 
versions had  been  made,  seem  to  have  been  wholly  confined 
to  the  sea-border,  and  even  after  the  decline  of  Portuguese 
influence  in  this  part  of  the  world,  and  the  restoration  of 
Arab  rule  under  the  Sayyids  of  Omam,  hardly  any  efforts 
were  made  until  the  twentieth  century  to  spread  the  know- 
ledge of  Islam  among  the  tribes  of  the  interior,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Galla  and  Somali.  As  a  modern  traveller 
has  said  :  "  During  the  three  expeditions  which  I  conducted 
in  East  Central  Africa  I  saw  nothing  to  suggest  Moham- 
medanism as  a  civilising  power.  Whatever  living  force 
might  be  in  the  religion  remained  latent.  The  Arabs,  or 
their  descendants,  in  these  parts  were  not  propagandists. 
There  were  no  missionaries  to  preach  Islam,  and  the  natives 
of  Muscat  were  content  that  their  slaves  should  conform,  to 

1  Kitab  'aja'ib  al-Hind   ou    Livre  des  Merveilles  de  l'Inde,  publie  par 
P.  A.  van  der  Lith.  pp.  51-60.     (Leiden,  1883.) 


344  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

a  certain  extent,  to  the  forms  of  the  religion.  They  left 
the  East  African  tribes,  who  indeed,  in  their  gross  darkness, 
were  evidently  content  to  remain  in  happy  ignorance.  Their 
inaptitude  for  civilisation  was  strikingly  shown  in  the  strange 
fact  that  five  hundred  years  of  contact  with  semi-civilised 
people  had  left  them  without  the  faintest  reflection  of  the 
higher  traits  which  characterised  their  neighbours — not  a 
single  good  seed  during  all  these  years  had  struck  root  and 
flourished."  1  Given  up  wholly  to  the  pursuits  of  com- 
merce or  to  slave-hunting,  the  Arabs  in  Eastern  Africa  ex- 
hibited a  lukewarmness  in  promoting  the  interests  of  their 
faith,  which  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  missionary  zeal 
displayed  by  their  co-religionists  in  other  parts  of  Africa. 

A  notable  exception  is  the  propagandist  activity  of  the 
Arab  traders  who  were  admitted  into  Uganda  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century;  they  probably  recognised 
that  the  sturdy  independence  of  the  Baganda  made  slave- 
raiding  among  them  impossible,  so  they  sought  to  gain  their 
confidence  by  winning  them  over  to  their  own  faith.  Many 
of  the  Baganda  became  Muhammadans  during  the  reign  of 
King  Mutesa,  but  Stanley's  visit  to  this  monarch  in  1875 
led  to  the  introduction  of  Christian  missions  in  the  following 
year,  and  the  power  of  the  Muhammadans  in  the  state 
declined  with  the  rapid  increase  in  the  numbers  of  the 
Christian  converts  and  the  establishment  of  a  British 
Protectorate.2  But  a  number  of  Muhammadans  still  hold 
important  positions  in  Uganda,  and  it  is  stated  that  there 
is  a  possibility  of  the  Eastern  Province  becoming  Muslim. 
In  the  rich  tributary  country  of  Busoga,  to  the  north  of 
Uganda,  a  large  number  of  those  in  authority  were  said, 
in  1906,  to  be  Muhammadans.3  But  with  this  exception 
Islam  in  East  Equatorial  Africa  was  up  to  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century  confined  to  the  coast-lands  and 
the  immediately  adjoining  country.  The  explanation  would 
appear    to   be  that    it  was   not    to    the    interests    of   the 

1  Mohammedanism  in  Central  Africa,  by  Joseph  Thomson,  p.  877. 

2  Roscoe,  p.  229  sq. 

3  Zwemer,  p.  236.  Gairdner  (p.  26)  gives  the  number  of  Muhammadans 
as  200,000  out  of  a  population  of  four  millions,  but  he  does  not  state  from 
what  source  he  derives  these  figures.  Roscoe  (p.  6)  gives  the  total  popula- 
tion of  Uganda  as  about  one  million  only, 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN  AFRICA        345 

slave-dealers  to  spread  Islam  among  the  heathen  tribes  from 
among  whom  they  obtained  their  unhappy  victims ;  for,  once 
converted  to  Islam,  the  native  tribes  would  enter  into  the 
brotherhood  of  the  faith  and  could  not  be  raided  and  carried 
off  as  slaves.1 

The  suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  with  the  extension  of 
European  rule  over  East  Equatorial  Africa,  was  followed 
by  a  remarkable  expansion  of  Muslim  missionary  activity; 
peace  and  order  were  established  in  the  interior,  railways 
and  high  roads  were  made,  and  the  peaceful  Muslim  trader 
could  now  make  his  way  into  districts  hitherto  closed  to 
him.  The  administration  selected  its  officials  from  among 
the  more  cultivated  Muhammadan  section  of  the  popula- 
tion; thousands  of  posts  were  created  by  the  govern- 
ment of  German  East  Africa  and  given  to  Muhammadan 
officials,  whose  influence  was  used  to  bring  over  whole 
villages  to  Islam.2  The  teachers  of  the  state  schools  were 
likewise  Muhammadans,  and  as  early  as  the  last  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  century  Swahili  schoolmasters  were  observed 
to  be  carrying  on  a  lively  and  successful  mission  work  among 
the  people  of  Bondei  and  the  Wadigo  (who  dwell  a  little 
inland  from  the  coast)  in  German  East  Africa.3  But  it  was 
in  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  especially  after 
the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  of  1905  in  German  East 
Africa,  that  the  activity  of  this  new  missionary  movement 
became  strikingly  noticeable  in  the  interior.4  This  move- 
ment of  expansion  has  especially  followed  the  railroads 
and  the  great  trade  routes,  and  has  spread  right  across 
German  East  Africa  to  its  western  boundary  on  Lake 
Tanganyika,  northward  from  Usambara  to  the  Kilimanjaro 
district,  and  southward  to  Lake  Nyasa.5  The  workers  in 
this  propaganda  are  merchants,  especially  Swahilis  from  the 
coast-,  soldiers  and  government  officials.6  The  acceptance 
of  Islam  is  looked  upon  as  a  sign  of  an  elevation  to  a  higher 
civilisation  and  social  status,  and  the  ridicule  with  which 
the  pagans  are  regarded  by  the  Muhammadans  is  said  often 

1  Richter,  pp.  146-7,  154.    Merensky,  p.  156.     Klamroth,  p.  4. 

2  R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  ix.  (1909),  p.  322. 

3  Oscar  Baumann  :  Usambara  und  seine  Nachbargebiete,  pp.  141,  153. 
(Berlin,  1891.)  4  Becker,  Islam  in  Deutsch-Ostafrika,  p.  10, 

6  Id.  p.  13  sqq.      Klamroth,  pp,  14-28.  6  Id.  p.  53. 


346  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

to  be  a  determining  factor  in  their  conversion.1  An  instance 
of  the  operation  of  this  feeling  may  be  taken  from  West 
Usambara,  which  was  said  in  1891  to  be  still  closed  to  Islam ; 
the  feeling  of  both  chiefs  and  people  was  hostile  to  the 
Muhammadans,  who  were  hated  and  feared  as  slave-dealers ; 
but  when  the  days  of  the  slave-trade  were  over  and  an 
ordered  administration  was  established,  the  first  native 
officials  appointed  were  almost  entirely  Muhammadans; 
they  impressed  upon  the  chiefs  and  other  notables  who  came 
in  touch  with  them  that  it  was  the  correct  thing  for  those 
who  moved  in  official  circles  to  be  Muhammadans,  and 
thereby  achieved  the  conversion  of  some  of  the  greater 
chiefs,  who  afterwards  exercised  a  similar  influence  on  chiefs 
of  an  inferior  degree.2  There  seems  to  be  little  evidence  of 
the  activity  of  professional  missionaries  or  of  any  of  the 
religious  orders,  but  there  are  not  wanting  evidences  of 
systematic  efforts,  such  as  those  of  a  Muslim  teacher,  who 
is  reported  to  have  regularly  visited  a  district  in  the  Kili- 
manjaro country  every  week  for  five  months,  preaching  the 
faith  of  Islam;  his  ministrations  were  welcomed  by  the 
people,  whom  he  entertained  with  feasts  of  rice,  etc.3  In 
this  zealous  propaganda  it  is  noticeable  that  the  preachers  of 
Islam  do  not  confine  their  attention  to  pagans  only,  but  seek 
also  to  win  converts  from  among  the  native  Christians.4 

Islam  made  its  way  into  Nyasaland  also  from  the  East 
Coast,  having  been  introduced  by  the  slave-raiding  Arabs 
and  their  allies  the  Yaos,  whose  ancestors  came  from  near 
the  East  Coast  where  they  had  long  since  accepted  Islam. 
It  is  said  that  an  Arab  is  now  seldom  seen  in  Nyasaland,  but 
the  Yaos  constitute  one  of  the  most  powerful  native  tribes 
in  Nyasaland,  and  look  upon  Islam  as  their  national  faith. 
Though  there  appears  to  be  no  organised  propaganda,  Islam 
has  spread  very  rapidly  during  the  first  decade  of  the 
twentieth  century,  and  that  among  some  of  the  most 
intelligent  tribes  in  the  country.5 

Islam  has  achieved  a  similar  success  among  the  Galla  and 
the  Somali.     Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  Galla 

1  Klamroth,  pp.  21,  25,  54.  2  Id.  pp.  23-4. 

3  Id.  p.  26.  *  Id.  p.  67. 

6  Becker:    Islam  in   Deutsch-Ostafrika,   p.    14.     The  Moslem    World, 
vol.  ii.   p.  3  sqq. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        347 

settlements  in  Abyssinia ;  these  immigrants,  who  are  divided 
into  seven  principal  clans,  with  the  generic  name  of  Wollo- 
Galla,  were  probably  all  heathen  at  the  time  of  their  incur- 
sion into  the  country,1  and  a  large  part  of  them  remain 
so  to  the  present  day.  After  settling  in  Abyssinia  they 
soon  became  naturalised  there,  and  in  many  instances 
adopted  the  language,  manners  and  customs  of  the  original 
inhabitants  of  the  country.2 

The  story  of  their  conversion  is  obscure  :  while  some  of 
them  are  said  to  have  been  forcibly  baptised  into  the 
Christian  faith,  the  absence  of  any  political  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  Muhammadans  precludes  the  possibility  of 
any  converts  to  Islam  having  been  made  in  a  similar  fashion. 
In  the  eighteenth  century,  those  in  the  south  were  said  to 
be  mostly  Muhammadans,  those  to  the  east  and  west  chiefly 
pagans.3  More  recent  information  points  to  a  further 
increase  in  the  number  of  the  followers  of  the  Prophet,  and 
in  1867  Munzinger  prophesied  that  in  a  short  time  all  the 
Galla  tribes  would  be  Muhammadan,4  and  as  they  were  said 
to  be  "  very  fanatical,"  we  may  presume  that  they  were  by 
no  means  half-hearted  or  lukewarm  in  their  adherence  to 
this  religion.5 

The  Galla  freedman  whom  Doughty  met  at  Khaybar 
certainly  exhibited  a  remarkable  degree  of  zeal  for  his  own 
faith.  He  had  been  carried  off  from  his  home  when  a 
child  and  sold  as  a  slave  in  Jiddah  ;  when  Doughty  asked 
him  whether  no  anger  was  left  in  his  heart  against  those 
who  had  stolen  him  and  sold  his  life  to  servitude  in  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  "  Yet  one  thing,"  he  answered,  "  has  recom- 
pensed me, — that  I  remained  not  in  ignorance  with  the 
heathen  ! — Oh,  the  wonderful  providence  of  Ullah  !  whereby 

1  A  contemporary  Ethiopic  account  of  these  tribes, — Geschichte  der 
Galla.  Bericht  eines  abessinischen  Monches  iiber  die  Invasion  der  Galla 
in  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert.  Text  und  tfbersetzung  hrsg.  von  A.  W. 
Schleichler  (Berlin,  1893), — seems  certainly  to  represent  them  as  heathen, 
though  no  detailed  account  is  given  of  their  religion.  Reclus  (tome  x. 
p.  330),  however,  supposes  them  to  have  been  Muhammadan  at  the  time  of 
their  invasion. 

2  Henry  Salt :  A  Voyage  to  Abyssinia,  p.  299.     (London,  1814.) 

3  James  Bruce  :  Travels  to  discover  the  source  of  the  Nile,  2nd  ed.  vol.  iii. 
p.  243.     (Edinburgh,  1805.) 

4  Munzinger,  p.  408. 

5  I.  L.  Krapf  :  Reisen  in  Ost-Africa,  ausgefiihrt  in  den  Jahren  1837-55, 
vol.  i.  p.  106.     (Kornthal,  1858.) 


348  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

I  am  come  to  this  country  of  the  Apostle,  and  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  religion  !  "  x  "  Oh  !  what  sweetness  is  there 
in  believing  !  Trust  me,  dear  comrade,  it  is  a  thing  above 
that  which  any  heart  may  speak ;  and  would  God  thou  wert 
come  to  this  (heavenly)  knowledge ;  but  the  Lord  will  surely 
have  a  care  of  thee,  that  thou  shouldst  not  perish  without 
the  religion.  Ay,  how  good  a  thing  it  were  to  see  thee  a 
Moslem,  and  become  one  with  us ;  but  I  know  that  the  time 
is  in  God's  hand  :    the  Lord's  will  be  done."  2 

Among  the  Galla  tribes  of  the  true  Galla  country,  the 
population  is  partly  Muhammadan  (some  tribes  having 
been  converted  about  1500)  3  and  partly  heathen,  with 
the  exception  of  those  tribes  immediately  bordering  on 
Abyssinia  who  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  were  forced  by  the  king  of  that  country  to 
accept  Christianity.4  Among  the  mountains,  the  Muham- 
madans  are  in  a  minority,  but  on  the  plains  the 
missionaries  of  Islam  have  met  with  striking  success,  and 
their  teaching  found  a  rapidly  increasing  acceptance 
during  the  last  century.  Antonio  Cecchi,  who  visited  the 
petty  kingdom  of  Limmu  in  1878,  gives  an  account  of 
the  conversion  of  Abba  Baghibo,5  the  father  of  the  then 
reigning  chieftain,  by  Muhammadans  who  for  some  years 
had  been  pushing  their  proselytising  efforts  in  this  country 
in  the  guise  of  traders.  His  example  was  followed  by  the 
chiefs  of  the  neighbouring  Galla  kingdoms  and  by  the 
officers  of  their  courts ;  part  of  the  common  people  also  were 
won  over  to  the  new  faith,  and  it  continued  to  make  progress 
among  them,  but  the  greater  part  cling  firmly  to  their 
ancient  cult.6  These  traders  received  a  ready  welcome  at 
the  courts  of  the  Galla  chiefs,  inasmuch  as  they  found  them 
a  market  for  the  commercial  products  of  the  country  and 
imported  objects  of  foreign  manufacture  in  exchange.  As 
they  made  their  journeys  to  the  coast  once  a  year  only,  or 

1  Arabia  Deserta,  vol.  ii.  p.  168.  2  Id.,  vol.  ii.  p.  109. 

3  Morie,  vol.  ii.  p.  248. 

4  Reclus,  tome.  x.  p.  309.     Basset,  pp.  270-1. 

5  When  the  Roman  Catholics  opened  a  mission  among  the  Gallas  in 
1846,  Abba  Baghibo  said  to  them  :  "  Had  you  come  thirty  years  ago,  not 
only  I,  but  all  my  countrymen  might  have  embraced  your  religion ;  but 
now  it  is  impossible."     (Massaja,  vol.  iv.  p.  103.) 

6  Da  Zeila  alle  frontiere  del  Caffa,  vol.  ii.  p.  160,  (Rome,  1886-7.) 
Massaja,  vol.  iv.  p.  103;  vol.  vi.  p.  10, 


THE   SPREAD   OF  ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        349 

even  once  in  two  years,  and  lived  all  the  rest  of  the  time  in 
the  Galla  country,  they  had  plenty  of  opportunities,  which 
they  knew  well  how  to  avail  themselves  of,  for  the  work  of 
propagating  Islam,  and  wherever  they  set  their  foot  they 
were  sure  in  a  short  space  of  time  to  gain  a  large  number  of 
proselytes.1  Islam  here  came  in  conflict  with  Christian 
missionaries  from  Europe,  whose  efforts,  though  winning  for 
Christianity  a  few  converts,  have  been  crowned  with  very 
little  success,2 — even  the  converts  of  Cardinal  Massaja  (after 
he  was  expelled  from  these  parts)  either  embraced  Islam  or 
ended  by  believing  neither  in  Christ  nor  in  Allah,3 — whereas 
the  Muslim  missionaries  achieved  a  continuous  success,  and 
pushed  their  way  far  to  the  south,  and  crossed  the  Wabi 
river.4  The  majority  of  the  Galla  tribes  dwelling  in  the 
west  of  the  Galla  country  were  still  heathen  towards  the  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  among  the  most  westerly  of 
them,  viz.  the  Lega,5  the  old  nature  worship  appeared  to 
be  on  the  decline  and  the  growing  influence  of  the  Muslim 
missionaries  made  it  probable  that  within  a  few  years  the 
Lega  would  all  have  entered  into  the  pale  of  Islam.6 

The  North-East  Africa  of  the  present  day  presents  indeed 
the  spectacle  of  a  remarkably  energetic  and  zealous  mission- 
ary activity  on  the  part  of  the  Muhammadans.  Several 
hundreds  of  missionaries  come  from  Arabia  every  year,  and 
they  have  been  even  more  successful  in  their  labours  among 
the  Somali  than  among  the  Galla.7  The  close  proximity  of 
the  Somali  country  to  Arabia  must  have  caused  it  very 
early  to  have  been  the  scene  of  Muhammadan  missionary 
labours,  but  of  these  unfortunately  little  record  seems  to 
have  survived.  The  people  of  Zayla*  were  said  by  Ibn 
Hawqal8  in  the  second  half  the  ninth  century  to  be 
Christians,  but  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century 

1  Massaja,  vol.  iv.  p.  102. 

2  Speaking  of  the  failure  of  Christian  missions,  Cecchi  says  :       di  cio  si 
deve  ricercare  la  causa  nello  espandersi  che  fece  quaggiu  in  questi  ultimi 
anni  1'  islamismo,  portato  da  centinaja  di  preti  e  mercanti  musulmani,  cm 
non  facevano  difetto  i  mezzi,  1'  astuzia  e  la  piena  conoscenza  della  lingua. 
(Op.  cit.  vol.  ii.  p.  342.) 

3  Id.,  p.  343. 

4  Reclus,  tome  xiii.  p.  834. 

5  The  Lega  are  found  in  long.  90  to  90  30'  and  lat.  E.  340  35  to  35  . 

6  Reclus,  tome  x.  p.  350. 

7  Paulitschke,  pp.  330-1.  8  Ibn  Hawqal,  p.  41. 


350  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Abu'1-Fida  speaks  of  them  as  being  Musalmans.1  The 
new  faith  was  probably  brought  across  the  sea  by  Arab 
merchants  or  refugees.  The  Somalis  of  the  north  have 
a  tradition  of  a  certain  Arab  of  noble  birth  who,  com- 
pelled to  flee  his  own  country,  crossed  the  sea  to  Adel, 
where  he  preached  the  faith  of  Islam  among  their  fore- 
fathers.2 In  the  fifteenth  century  a  band  of  forty-four 
Arabs  came  as  missionaries  from  Hadramawt,  landing 
at  Berberah  on  the  Red  Sea,  and  thence  dispersed 
over  the  Somali  country  to  preach  Islam.  One  of  them, 
Shaykh  Ibrahim  Abu  Zarbay,  made  his  way  to  the  city  of 
Harar  about  a.d.  1430,  and  gained  many  converts  there,  and 
his  tomb  is  still  honoured  in  that  city.  A  hill  near  Berberah 
is  still  called  the  Mount  of  Saints  in  memory  of  these 
missionaries,  who  are  said  to  have  sat  there  in  solemn 
conclave  before  scattering  far  and  wide  to  the  work  of 
conversion.3  Islam  gradually  became  predominant  through- 
out the  whole  of  North-East  Africa,  but  the  growing  power 
of  the  Emperor  Menelik  and  his  occupation  of  Harar  in  1886 
resulted  in  a  certain  number  of  conversions  to  Christianity.4 
In  order  to  complete  this  survey  of  Islam  in  Africa,  it 
remains  only  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  this  religion 
has  also  made  its  entrance  into  the  extreme  south  of  this 
continent,  viz.  in  Cape  Colony.  These  Muhammadans  of 
the  Cape  are  descendants  of  Malays,  who  were  brought  here 
by  the  Dutch 5  either  in  the  seventeenth  or  eighteenth 
century ;  6  they  speak  a  corrupt  form  of  the  Boer  dialect, 
with  a  considerable  admixture  of  Arabic,  and  some  English 
and  Malay  words.     A  curious  little  book  published  in  this 

1  Abu'1-Fida,  tome  ii.  ire  partie,  pp.  231-2. 

2  Documents  sur  l'histoire,  la  geographie  et  le  commerce  de  l'Afrique 
Orientale,  recueillis  par  M.  Guillain.  Deuxieme  partie,  tome  i.  p.  399- 
(Paris,  1856.) 

3  R.  F.  Burton  :  First  Footprints  in  East  Africa,  pp.  76,  404.  (London, 
1856.) 

4  R.  du  M.  M.,  vi.  p.  288.     (1908.) 

6  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Dutch  from  1652 
to  1795;  restored  to  them  after  the  Peace  of  Amiens  in  1802,  it  was  re- 
occupied  by  the  British  as  soon  as  war  broke  out  again. 

6  Among  these  was  Shaykh  Yusuf,  a  religious  teacher  of  great  influence 
in  Java  and  the  last  champion  of  the  independence  of  Bantam;  in  1694 
he  was  removed  by  the  Dutch  to  Cape  Colony  as  a  prisoner  of  state,  together 
with  his  family  and  numerous  attendants ;  his  tomb  is  still  regarded  as  a 
holy  place.  (G.  M.  Theal :  History  and  Ethnography  of  Africa  south  of 
the  Zambesi,  vol.  ii.  p.  263.)     (London,  I9°9-) 


THE  SPREAD  OF  ISLAM   IN  AFRICA        351 

dialect  and  written  in  Arabic  characters  was  published  in 
Constantinople  in  1877  by  the  Turkish  minister  of  education, 
to  serve  as  a  handbook  of  the  principles  of  the  Muslim 
faith.1  The  thoroughly  Dutch  names  that  some  of  them 
bear,  and  the  type  of  face  observable  in  many  of  them,  point 
to  the  probability  that  they  have  at  some  time  received  into 
their  community  some  persons  of  Dutch  birth,  or  at  least 
that  they  have  in  their  veins  a  considerable  admixture  of 
Dutch  blood.  They  have  also  gained  some  converts  from 
among  the  Hottentots.  Very  little  notice  has  been  taken 
of  them  by  European  travellers,2  or  even  by  their 
co-religionists  until  recently.  In  1819  Colebrooke  had 
drawn  attention  to  the  growth  of  Islam  in  some  interesting 
notes  he  wrote  on  the  Cape  Colony  :  "  Mohammedanism 
is  said  to  be  gaining  ground  among  the  slaves  and  free 
people  of  colour  at  the  Cape;  that  is  to  say,  more 
converts  among  negroes  and  blacks  of  every  description 
are  made  from  Paganism  to  the  Musleman,  than  to  the 
Christian  religion,  notwithstanding  the  zealous  exertions 
of  pious  missionaries.  One  cause  of  this  perversion  is 
asserted  to  be  a  marked  disinclination  of  slave  owners  to 
allow  their  slaves  to  be  baptized ;  arising  from  some  erron- 
eous notions  or  over-charged  apprehensions  of  the  rights 
which  a  baptized  slave  acquires.  Slaves  are  certainly 
impressed  with  the  idea  that  such  a  disinclination  subsists, 
and  it  is  not  an  unfrequent  answer  of  a  slave,  when  asked 
his  motives  for  turning  Musleman,  that  '  some  religion  he 
must  have,  and  he  is  not  allowed  to  turn  Christian.'  Pre- 
judices in  this  respect  are  wearing  away;  and  less  dis- 
couragement is  now  given  to  the  conversion  of  slaves  than 
heretofore.  Masters,  it  is  affirmed,  begin  to  find  that  their 
slaves  serve  not  the  worse  for  instruction  received  in  religious 
duties.  Missionaries  who  devote  themselves  especially  to 
the  religious  instruction  of  slaves  (and  there  is  one  in  each 
of  the  principal  towns)  have  increasing  congregations,  and 
hope    that    their    labours    are    not    unfruitful.     But    the 

1  M.  J.  de  Goeje  :    Mohammedaansche  Propaganda,  pp.  2,  6.     (Overge- 
drukt  uit  de  Nederlandsche  Spectator,  No.  51,  1881.) 

2  Attention  was  drawn  to  them  in  1814  by  a  Mr.  Campbell.     See  William 
Adams  :    The  Modern  Voyager  and  Traveller,   vol.  i.  p.   93-     (London, 

I834-) 


352  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

Musleman  priest,  with  less  exertion,  has  a  greater  flock."  x 
During  the  last  fifty  years  the  Muhammadans  in  Cape 
Colony  have  been  visited  by  some  zealous  co-religionists 
from  other  countries,  and  more  attention  is  now  paid  by 
them  to  education,  and  a  deeper  religious  life  has  been 
stirred  up  among  them,  and  they  are  said  to  carry  on  a  zealous 
propaganda,  especially  among  the  coloured  people  at  the 
Cape  and  to  achieve  a  certain  success.2  This  proselytising 
movement  is  especially  strong  in  the  western  part  of  Cape 
Colony.  It  is  said  that  there  is  a  movement  on  foot  for  the 
founding  of  a  college  at  Claremont,  in  the  vicinity  of  Cape 
Town,  which  shall  become  a  centre  for  the  propagation  of 
Islam.  One  of  the  methods  at  present  employed  is  the 
adoption  of  neglected  or  abandoned  children,  who  are 
brought  up  in  the  Muslim  faith.3  Every  year  some  of  them 
make  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  where  a  special  Shaykh  has 
been  appointed  to  look  after  them.4  The  Indian  coolies 
that  come  to  work  in  the  diamond  fields  of  South  Africa  are 
also  said  to  be  propagandists  of  Islam.5 

On  account  of  its  isolated  position,  220  to  540  miles  from 
the  mainland,  the  island  of  Madagascar  calls  for  separate 
mention.  The  only  tribe  that  has  adopted  Islam  is  that  of 
the  Antaimorona,  occupying  a  part  of  the  south-east  coast ; 
they  undoubtedly  owed  their  conversion  to  missionaries 
from  Arabia,  but  the  date  at  which  this  change  of  faith  took 
place  is  entirely  unknown;  tradition  would  carry  it  back 
to  the  very  days  of  Muhammad  himself,  but  it  is  not  until 
the  sixteenth  century  that  we  get,  in  the  works  of  Italian 
and  Portuguese  geographers,  authentic  mention  of  Muham- 
madans on  the  island.6 

From  the  historical  sketch  given  above  it  may  be  seen 
that  peaceful  methods  have  largely  characterised  the  Muham- 
madan  missionary  movement  in  Africa,  and  though  Islam 

1  SirT.E.Colebrooke:  TheLifeofH.T.Colebrooke,p.335-  (London,  1873.) 

2  F.  Coillard  :  Au  Cap  de  Bonne  Esperance.  (Journal  des  missions 
evangeliques,  avril  1899,  p.  265.) 

3  Kumm,  p.  233.  4  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje  (3),  vol.  ii.  pp.  296-7. 

5  Jacques  Bonzon  :  Les  Missionaires  de  1' Islam  en  Afrique.  (Revue 
Chretienne,  tome  xiii.  p.  295.)     (Paris,  1893.) 

6  G.  Ferrand,  Les  Musulmans  a  Madagascar,  pp.  19,  50  sqq.,  138.  (Paris, 
1891.)  Id.  Les  Migrations  musulmanes  et  juives  a  Madagascar.  (Revue 
de  l'Histoire  des  Religions,  vol.  lii.  p.  381  sqq.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN  AFRICA        353 

has  often  taken  the  sword  as  an  instrument  to  further  its 
spiritual  conquests,  such  an  appeal  to  violence  and  bloodshed 
has  in  most  cases  been  preceded  by  the  peaceful  efforts  of 
the  missionary,  and  the  preacher  has  followed  the  conqueror 
to  complete  the  imperfect  work  of  conversion.  It  is  true 
that  the  success  of  Islam  has  been  very  largely  facilitated 
in  many  parts  of  Africa  by  the  worldly  successes  of  Muham- 
madan  adventurers,  and  the  erection  of  Muhammadan  states 
on  the  ruins  of  pagan  kingdoms,  and  fire  and  bloodshed  have 
often  marked  the  course  of  a  Jihad,  projected  for  the  exter- 
mination of  the  infidel.  The  words  of  the  young  Arab  from 
Bornu  whom  Captain  Burton 1  met  in  the  palace  of  the  King 
of  Abeokuta  doubtless  express  the  aspirations  of  many  an 
African  Muhammadan  :  "  Give  those  guns  and  powder  to 
us,  and  we  will  soon  Islamise  these  dogs  "  :  and  they  find 
an  echo  in  the  message  that  Mungo  Park  2  gives  us  as  having 
been  sent  by  the  Muslim  King  of  Futah  Toro  to  his  pagan 
neighbour  :  "  With  this  knife  Abdulkader  will  condescend 
to  shave  the  head  of  Darnel,  if  Darnel  will  embrace  the 
Mahommedan  faith;  and  with  this  other  knife  Abdulkader 
will  cut  the  throat  of  Darnel,  if  Darnel  refuses  to  embrace  it  ; 
take  your  choice." 

But  much  as  Islam  may  have  owed  to  the  martial  prowess 
of  such  fanatics  as  these,  there  is  the  overwhelming  testimony 
of  travellers  and  others  to  the  peaceful  missionary  preaching, 
and  quiet  and  persistent  labours  of  the  Muslim  propagandist, 
which  have  done  more  for  the  rapid  spread  of  Islam  in 
modern  Africa  than  any  violent  measures  :  by  the  latter  its 
opponents  may  indeed  have  been  exterminated,  but  by  the 
former  chiefly,  have  its  converts  been  made,  and  the  work  of 
conversion  may  still  be  observed  in  progress  in  many  regions 
of  the  coast  and  the  interior.3  Wherever  Islam  has  made 
its  way,  there  is  the  Muhammadan  missionary  to  be  found 
bearing  witness  to  its  doctrines, — the  trader,  be  he  Arab, 
Pul  or  Mandingo,  who  combines  proselytism  with  the  sale  of 
his  merchandise,  and  whose  very  profession  brings  him  into 
close  and  immediate  contact  with  those  he  would  convert, 

1  Richard  F.  Burton  (i),  vol.  i.  p.  256. 

2  Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Africa,  chap.  xxv.  ad  fin. 

3  D.  J.  East,  pp.   118-20.     W.  Winwood  Reade,  vol.  i.  p.  312.     Blyden, 
pp.  13,  202. 

A  A 


354  THE  PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

and  disarms  any  possible  suspicion  of  sinister  motives; 
such  a  man  when  he  enters  a  pagan  village  soon  attracts 
attention  by  his  frequent  ablutions  and  regularly  recurring 
times  of  prayer  and  prostration,  in  which  he  appears  to  be 
conversing  with  some  invisible  being,  and  by  his  very 
assumption  of  intellectual  and  moral  superiority,  commands 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  heathen  people,  to  whom 
at  the  same  time  he  shows  himself  ready  and  willing  to 
communicate  his  high  privileges  and  knowledge; — the  haji 
or  pilgrim  who  has  returned  from  Mecca  full  of  enthusiasm 
for  the  spread  of  the  faith,  to  which  he  devotes  his  whole 
energies,  wandering  about  from  place  to  place,  supported 
by  the  alms  of  the  faithful  who  bear  witness  to  the  truth 
in  the  midst  of  their  pagan  neighbours ; — the  student  who, 
in  consequence  of  his  knowledge  of  Islamic  theology  and 
law,  receives  honour  as  a  man  of  learning  :  sometimes,  too, 
he  practises  medicine,  or  at  least  he  is  in  great  requisition  as 
a  writer  of  charms,  texts  from  the  Qur'an,  which  are  sewn 
up  in  pieces  of  leather  or  cloth  and  tied  on  the  arms,  or 
round  the  neck,  and  which  he  can  turn  to  account  as  a  means 
of  adding  to  the  number  of  his  converts  :  for  instance,  when 
childless  women  or  those  who  have  lost  their  children  in 
infancy,  apply  for  these  charms,  as  a  condition  of  success  the 
obligation  is  always  imposed  upon  them  of  bringing  up  their 
future  children  as  Muhammadans.1  These  religious  teachers, 
or  marabouts,  or  alufas  as  they  are  variously  termed,  are 
held  in  the  highest  estimation.  In  some  tribes  of  Western 
Africa  every  village  contains  a  lodge  for  their  reception,  and 
they  are  treated  with  the  utmost  deference  and  respect  : 
in  Darfur  they  hold  the  highest  rank  after  those  who  fill  the 
offices  of  government  :  among  the  Mandingos  they  rank  still 
higher,  and  receive  honour  next  to  the  king,  the  subordinate 
chiefs  being  regarded  as  their  inferiors  in  point  of  dignity  : 
in  those  states  in  which  the  Qur'an  is  made  the  rule  of 
government  in  all  civil  matters,  their  services  are  in  great 
demand,  in  order  to  interpret  its  meaning.  So  sacred  are 
the  persons  of  these  teachers  esteemed,  that  they  pass 
without  molestation  through  the  countries  of  chiefs,  not 

1  Bishop  Crowther  on  Islam  in  Western  Africa.     (Church  Missionary 
Intelligencer,  p.  254,  April  1888.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        355 

only  hostile  to  each  other,  but  engaged  in  actual  warfare. 
Such  deference  is  not  only  paid  to  them  in  Muhammadan 
countries,   but  also  in  the  pagan  villages  in  which  they 
establish  their  schools,  where  the  people  respect  them  as  the 
instructors  of  their  children,  and  look  upon  them  as  the 
medium  between  themselves  and  Heaven,  either  for  securing 
a  supply  of  their  necessities,  or  for  warding  off  or  removing 
calamities.1     Many  of  these  teachers  have  studied  in  the 
mosques  of  Qayrwan,  Fas,  Tripoli  2  and  other  centres  of 
Muslim  learning ;    but  especially  in  the  mosque  of  al-Azhar 
in  Cairo.     Students  flock  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the  Muslim 
world,  and  among  them  is  often  to  be  found  a  contingent 
from    Negro    Africa, — students    from    Darfur,    Wadai   and 
Bornu,  and  some  who  even  make  their  way  on  foot  from 
the  far  distant  West  Coast ;  when  they  have  finished  their 
courses   of  study  in   Muslim  theology  and  jurisprudence, 
there  are  many  of  them  who  become  missionaries  among 
the  heathen  population  of  their  native  land.     Schools  are 
established  by  these  missionaries  in  the  towns  they  visit, 
which  are  frequented  by  the  pagan  as  well  as  the  Muslim 
children.     They  are  taught  to  read  the  Qur'an,   and  in- 
structed in  the  doctrines  and  ceremonies  of  Islam.     Having 
thus  gained  a  footing,  the  Muhammadan  missionary,  by  his 
superior  knowledge  and  attainments,  is  not  slow  to  obtain 
great  influence  over  the  people  among  whom  he  has  come  to 
live.     In  this  he  is  aided  by  the  fact  that  his  habits  and 
manner  of  life  are  similar  in  many  respects  to  their  own,  nor 
is  he  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  inasmuch  as  the  trader 
has  already  prepared  the  way  for  him ;  and  by  intermarriage 
with  the  natives,  being  thus  received  into  their  social  system, 
his  influence  becomes  firmly  rooted  and  permanent,  and 
so  in   the  most  natural   manner   he  gradually  causes   the 
knowledge  of  Islam  to  spread  among  them. 

His  propagandist  efforts  are  further  facilitated  by  the  fact 
that  the  deism  which  forms  the  background  of  the  religious 
consciousness  of  many  fetish-worshippers  may  pass  by  an 
easy  transition  into  the  theism  of  Islam,  together  with  some 

1  D.  J.  East,  pp.  1 12-13.     Blyden,  p.  202. 

2  It  is  said  that  over  a  thousand  missionaries  of  Islam  leave  Tripoli  every 
year  to  work  in  the  Sudan.      (Paulitschke,  p.  331.) 


356  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

other  aspects  of  their  theology,  while  their  general  out- 
look upon  life  and  several  of  their  religious  institutions  are 
capable  of  taking  on  a  Muslim  colouring  and  of  being  trans- 
ferred to  the  new  system  of  faith  without  undergoing  much 
modification.1 

The  arrival  of  the  Muhammadan  in  a  pagan  country  is 
also  the  beginning  of  the  opening  up  of  a  more  extensive 
trade,  and  of  communication  with  great  Muhammadan 
trading  centres  such  as  Jenne,  Segu  or  Kano,  and  a  share 
in  the  advantages  of  this  material  civilisation  is  offered, 
together  with  the  religion  of  the  Prophet.  Thus  "  among  the 
uncivilised  negro  tribes  the  missionary  may  be  always  sure 
of  a  ready  audience  :  he  can  not  only  give  them  many 
truths  regarding  God  and  man  which  make  their  way  to  the 
heart  and  elevate  the  intellect,  but  he  can  at  once  com- 
municate the  Shibboleth  of  admission  to  a  social  and  political 
communion,  which  is  a  passport  for  protection  and  assistance 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Wall  of  China.  Wherever  a  Moslem 
house  can  be  found  there  the  negro  convert  who  can  repeat 
the  dozen  syllables  of  his  creed,  is  sure  of  shelter,  sustenance 
and  advice,  and  in  his  own  country  he  finds  himself  at  once 
a  member  of  an  influential,  if  not  of  a  dominant  caste.  This 
seems  the  real  secret  of  the  success  of  the  Moslem  mission- 
aries in  West  Africa.  It  is  great  and  rapid  as  regards 
numbers,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  Moslem  missionary, 
from  the  very  first  profession  of  the  convert's  belief,  acts 
practically  on  those  principles  regarding  the  equality  and 
brotherhood  of  all  believers  before  God,  which  Islam  shares 
with  Christianity ;  and  he  does  this,  as  a  general  rule,  more 
speedily  and  decidedly  than  the  Christian  missionary,  who 
generally  feels  bound  to  require  good  evidence  of  a  converted 
heart  before  he  gives  the  right  hand  of  Christian  fellowship, 
and  who  has  always  to  contend  with  race  prejudices  not 
likely  to  die  out  in  a  single  generation  where  the  white 
Christian  has  for  generations  been  known  as  master,  and 
the  black  heathen  as  slave."  2 

It  is  important,  too,  to  note  that  neither  his  colour  nor 

1  For  a  detailed  examination  of  these  points  of  contact,  see  Forget, 
p.  28  sqq.     Merensky,  p.  155. 

2  Sir  Bartle  Frere  (1),  pp.  18-19. 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        357 

his  race  in  any  way  prejudice  the  Negro  in  the  eyes  of  his 
new  co-religionists.  The  progress  of  Islam  in  Negritia  has 
no  doubt  been  materially  advanced  by  this  absence  of  any 
feeling  of  repulsion  towards  the  Negro — indeed  Islam  seems 
never  to  have  treated  the  Negro  as  an  inferior,  as  has  been 
unhappily  too  often  the  case  in  Christendom.1 

This  consideration  goes  partly  to  explain  the  success  of 
Muslim  as  contrasted  with  Christian  missions  among  the 
Negro  peoples.  It  has  frequently  been  pointed  out  that  the 
Negro  convert  to  Christianity  is  apt  to  feel  that  his  European 
co-religionists  belong  to  a  stratum  of  civilisation  alien 
to  his  own  habits  of  life,  whereas  he  feels  himself  to 
be  more  at  home  in  a  Muslim  society.  This  has  been  well 
stated  by  a  modern  observer,  in  the  following  passage  : — 
"  Islam,  despite  its  shortcomings,  does  not,  from  the 
Nigerian  point  of  view,  demand  race  suicide  of  the  Nigerian 
as  an  accompaniment  of  conversion.  It  does  not  stipulate 
revolutionary  changes  in  social  life,  impossible  at  the  present 
stage  of  Nigerian  development;  nor  does  it  undermine 
family  or  communal  authority.  Between  the  converter  and 
converted  there  is  no  abyss.  Both  are  equal,  not  in  theory, 
but  in  practice,  before  God.  Both  are  African ;  sons  of  the 
soil.  The  doctrine  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  carried  out 
in  practice.     Conversion  does  not  mean  for  the  converted 

1  E.  W.  Blyden,  pp.  18-24.    E.  Allegret,  p.  200.    Westermann,  pp.  644-5. 

In  a  very  interesting,  but  now  forgotten,  debate  before  the  Anthro- 
pological Society  of  London,  on  the  Efforts  of  Missionaries  among  Savages, 
a  case  was  mentioned  of  a  Christian  missionary  in  Africa  who  married  a 
negress  :  the  feeling  against  him  in  consequence  was  so  strong  that  he  had 
to  leave  the  colony.  The  Muslim  missionary  labours  under  no  such  dis- 
advantage. (Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  London,  vol.  iii. 
1865.) 

The  contrast  between  the  way  in  which  Christianity  and  Islam  present 
themselves  to  the  African  is  well  brought  out  by  one  who  is  himself  a  Negro, 
in  the  following  passage  : — "  Tandis  que  les  missions  renvoient  a  une 
epoque  indefinie  l'etablissement  du  pastorat  indigene,  les  pretres  musulmans 
penetrent  dans  l'interieur  de  l'Afrique,  trouvent  un  acces  facile  chez  les 
paiens  et  les  convertissent  a  l'islam.     De  sorte  qu'aujourd'hui  les  negres 
regardent  l'islam  comme  la  religion  des  noirs,  et  le  christianisme  comme  la 
religion   des  blancs.     Le   christianisme,   pensent-ils,    appelle  le  negre  au 
salut,  mais  lui  assigne  une  place  tenement  basse  que,  decourage,  il  se  dit  : 
'  Je  n'ai  ni  part  ni  portion  dans  cette  affaire.'     L'islam  appelle  le  negre  au 
salut  et  lui  dit  :    '  II  ne  depend  que  de  toi  pour  arriver  aussi  haut  que 
possible.'     Alors,  le  negre  enthousiasme  se  livre  corps  et  ame  au  service 
de  cette  religion."     L'islam   et  le  christianisme  en  Afrique  d'apres  un 
Africain.      (Journal    des    Missions    Evangiliques.     63e    annee,    p.    207.) 
(Paris,  1888.) 


358  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

a  break  with  his  interests,  his  family,  his  social  life,  his 
respect  for  the  authority  of  his  natural  rulers.  .  .  .  No  one 
can  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  carriage,  the  dignity  of  the 
Nigerian — indeed  of  the  West  African — Mohammedan ;  the 
whole  bearing  of  the  man  suggests  a  consciousness  of  citizen- 
ship, a  pride  of  race  which  seems  to  say  :  '  We  are  different, 
thou  and  I,  but  we  are  men.'  The  spread  of  Islam  in 
Southern  Nigeria  which  we  are  witnessing  to-day  is  mainly 
social  in  its  action.  It  brings  to  those  with  whom  it  comes 
in  contact  a  higher  status,  a  loftier  conception  of  man's 
place  in  the  universe  around  him,  release  from  the  thraldom 
of  a  thousand  superstitious  fears."  1 

According  to  Muhammadan  tradition  Moses  was  a  black 
man,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  passages  in  the 
Qur'an.  "  Now  draw  thy  hand  close  to  thy  side  :  it  shall 
come  forth  white,  but  unhurt  : — another  sign  !  '  (xx.  23). 
"  Then  drew  he  forth  his  hand,  and  lo  !  it  was  white  to  the 
beholders.  The  nobles  of  Pharaoh's  people  said  :  '  Verily 
this  is  an  expert  enchanter'  "  (vii.  105-6).  The  following 
story  also,  handed  down  to  us  from  the  golden  period  of  the 
'Abbasid  dynasty,  is  interesting  as  evidence  of  Muham- 
madan feeling  with  regard  to  the  Negro.  Ibrahim,  a  brother 
of  Harun  al-Rashid  and  the  son  of  a  negress,  had  pro- 
claimed himself  Caliph  at  Baghdad,  but  was  defeated  and 
forgiven  by  al-Ma'mun,  who  was  then  reigning  (a.d.  819). 
He  thus  describes  his  interview  with  the  Caliph  : — "  Al- 
Ma'mun  said  to  me  on  my  going  to  see  him  after  having 
obtained  pardon  :  '  Is  it  thou  who  art  the  Negro  khalifah  ?  ' 
to  which  I  replied  : — '  Commander  of  the  faithful  !  I  am 
he  whom  thou  hast  deigned  to  pardon ;  and  it  has  been  said 
by  the  slave  of  Banu'l-Hashas  : — "  When  men  extol  their 
worth,  the  slave  of  the  family  of  Hashas  can  supply,  by  his 
verses,  the  defect  of  birth  and  fortune."  Though  I  be  a 
slave,  my  soul,  through  its  noble  nature,  is  free ;  though  my 
body  be  dark,  my  mind  is  fair.'  To  this  al-Ma'mun 
replied  :  '  Uncle  !  a  jest  of  mine  has  put  you  in  a  serious 
mood.'  He  then  repeated  these  verses  :  '  Blackness  of 
skin    cannot    degrade    an    ingenious    mind,   or   lessen   the 

1  E.   D.   Morel  :     Nigeria,   its    people  and    its   problems,    pp.    216-17. 
(London,  191 1.) 


THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        359 

worth  of  the  scholar  and  the  wit.  Let  darkness  claim  the 
colour  of  your  body :  I  claim  as  mine  your  fair  and 
candid  soul.'  "  x 

Thus,  the  converted  Negro  at  once  takes  an  equal  place 
in  the  brotherhood  of  believers,  neither  his  colour  nor  his 
race  nor  any  associations  of  the  past  standing  in  the  way. 
It  is  doubtless  the  ready  admission  they  receive,  that  makes 
the  pagan  Negroes  willing  to  enter  into  a  religious  society 
whose  higher  civilisation  demands  that  they  should  give  up 
many  of  their  old  barbarous  habits  and  customs ;  at  the 
same  time  the  very  fact  that  the  acceptance  of  Islam  does 
imply  an  advance  in  civilisation  and  is  a  very  distinct  step 
in  the  intellectual,  moral  and  material  progress  of  a  Negro 
tribe,  helps  very  largely  to  explain  the  success  of  this  faith. 
The  forces  arrayed  on  its  side  are  so  powerful  and  ascendant, 
that  the  barbarism,  ignorance  and  superstition  which  it 
seeks  to  sweep  away  have  little  chance  of  making  a  length- 
ened resistance.  What  the  civilisation  of  Muslim  Africa 
imples  to  the  Negro  convert,  is  admirably  expressed  in  the 
following  words  :  "  The  worst  evils  which,  there  is  reason 
to  believe,  prevailed  at  one  time  over  the  whole  of  Africa, 
and  which  are  still  to  be  found  in  many  parts  of  it,  and 
those,  too,  not  far  from  the  Gold  Coast  and  from  our  own 
settlements — cannibalism  and  human  sacrifice  and  the 
burial  of  living  infants — disappear  at  once  and  for  ever. 
Natives  who  have  hitherto  lived  in  a  state  of  nakedness,  or 
nearly  so,  begin  to  dress,  and  that  neatly;  natives  who  have 
never  washed  before  begin  to  wash,  and  that  frequently; 
for  ablutions  are  commanded  in  the  Sacred  Law,  and  it  is 
an  ordinance  which  does  not  involve  too  severe  a  strain  on 
their  natural  instincts.  The  tribal  organisation  tends  to 
give  place  to  something  which  has  a  wider  basis.  In  other 
words,  tribes  coalesce  into  nations,  and,  with  the  increase 
of  energy  and  intelligence,  nations  into  empires.  Many 
such  instances  could  be  adduced  from  the  history  of  the 
Soudan  and  the  adjoining  countries  during  the  last  hundred 
years.  If  the  warlike  spirit  is  thus  stimulated,  the  centres 
from  which  war  springs  are  fewer  in  number  and  further 
apart.     War  is  better  organised,  and  is  under  some  form  of 

1  Ibn  Khallikan,  vol.  i.  p.  18. 


360  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

restraint ;  quarrels  are  not  picked  for  nothing ;  there  is  less 
indiscriminate  plundering  and  greater  security  for  property 
and  life.  Elementary  schools,1  like  those  described  by 
Mungo  Park  a  century  ago,  spring  up,  and  even  if  they  only 
teach  their  scholars  to  recite  the  Koran,  they  are  worth 
something  in  themselves,  and  may  be  a  step  to  much  more. 
The  well-built  and  neatly-kept  mosque,  with  its  call  to 
prayer  repeated  five  times  a  day,  its  Mecca-pointing  niche, 
its  Imam  and  its  weekly  service,  becomes  the  centre  of  the 
village,  instead  of  the  ghastly  fetish  or  Juju  house.  The 
worship  of  one  God,  omnipotent,  omnipresent,  omniscient, 
and  compassionate,  is  an  immeasurable  advance  upon 
anything  which  the  native  has  been  taught  to  worship  before. 
The  Arabic  language,  in  which  the  Mussulman  scriptures 
are  always  written,  is  a  language  of  extraordinary  copious- 
ness and  beauty;  once  learned  it  becomes  a  lingua  franca 
to  the  tribes  of  half  the  continent,  and  serves  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  literature,  or  rather,  it  is  a  literature  in  itself.  It 
substitutes  moreover,  a  written  code  of  law  for  the  arbitrary 
caprice  of  a  chieftain — a  change  which  is,  in  itself,  an 
immense  advance  in  civilisation.  Manufactures  and  com- 
merce spring  up,  not  the  dumb  trading  or  the  elementary 
bartering  of  raw  products  which  we  know  from  Herodotus 
to  have  existed  from  the  earliest  times  in  Africa,  nor  the 
cowrie  shells,  or  gunpowder,  or  tobacco,  or  rum,  which  still 
serve  as  a  chief  medium  of  exchange  all  along  the  coast,  but 
manufactures  involving  considerable  skill,  and  a  commerce 

1  "  Extracts  from  the  Koran  form  the  earliest  reading  lessons  of  children, 
and  the  commentaries  and  other  works  founded  upon  it  furnish  the  principal 
subjects  of  the  advanced  studies.  Schools  of  different  grades  have  existed 
for  centuries  in  various  interior  negro  countries,  and  under  the  provision 
of  law,  in  which  even  the  poor  are  educated  at  the  public  expense,  and  in 
which  the  deserving  are  carried  on  many  years  through  long  courses  of 
regular  instruction.  Nor  is  the  system  always  confined  to  the  Arabic 
language,  or  to  the  works  of  Arabic  writers.  A  number  of  native  languages 
have  been  reduced  to  writing,  books  have  been  translated  from  the  Arabic 
and  original  works  have  been  written  in  them.  Schools  also  have  been  kept 
in  which  native  languages  are  taught."  Condition  and  Character  of  Negroes 
in  Africa.  By  Theodore  Dwight.  (Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  January 
1869.) 

Dr.  Blyden  (pp.  206-7)  mentions  the  following  books  as  read  by  Muslims 
in  Western  Africa  :  Maqamat  of  Hariri,  portions  of  Aristotle  and  Plato 
translated  into  Arabic,  an  Arabic  version  of  Hippocrates,  and  the  Arabic 
New  Testament  and  Psalms  issued  by  the  American  Bible  Society.  For  the 
literature  of  the  Muslims  in  East  Africa,  see  Becker :  Islam  in  Deutsch 
Ostafrika,  p.  18  sqq. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   AFRICA        361 

which  is  elaborately  organised;  and  under  their  influence, 
and  that  of  the  more  settled  government  which  Islam  brings 
in  its  train,  there  have  arisen  those  great  cities  of  Negro- 
land  whose  very  existence,  when  first  they  were  described 
by  European  travellers,  could  not  but  be  half  discredited. 
I  am  far  from  saying  that  the  religion  is  the  sole  cause  of 
all  this  comparative  prosperity.  I  only  say  it  is  consistent 
with  it,  and  it  encourages  it.  Climatic  conditions  and  various 
other  influences  co-operate  towards  the  result;  but  what 
has  Pagan  Africa,  even  where  the  conditions  are  very 
similar,  to  compare  with  it  ?  As  regards  the  individual,  it 
is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  Islam  gives  to  its  new  Negro 
converts  an  energy,  a  dignity,  a  self-reliance,  and  a  self- 
respect  which  is  all  too  rarely  found  in  their  Pagan  or  their 
Christian  fellow-countrymen."  1 

The  words  above  quoted  were  written  before  the  partition 
of  the  greater  part  of  Africa  among  the  governments  of 
Christian  Europe — England,  France  and  Germany — but 
the  imposing  character  of  Muslim  civilisation  has  not  ceased 
to  impress  the  Negro  mind,  or  to  operate  as  one  of  the 
influences  favourable  to  the  conversion  of  the  African 
fetish- worshippers.  Brought  suddenly  into  contact  with 
European  culture,  these  have  received  an  impulse  to  advance 
in  the  path  of  civilisation,  but  being  unable  to  bridge  over 
the  gulf  that  separates  them  from  their  foreign  rulers,  they 
find  in  Islam  a  culture  corresponding  to  their  needs  and 
capable  of  understanding  their  requirements  and  aspira- 
tions.2 So  far,  therefore,  from  the  extension  of  European 
domination  tending  to  hamper  the  activities  of  Muhammadan 
propagandists,  it  has  to  a  very  remarkable  degree  con- 
tributed towards  the  progress  of  Islam.  The  bringing  of 
peace  to  countries  formerly  harassed  by  wars  of  extermina- 
tion or  the  raids  of  slave-hunters,  the  establishment  of 
ordered  methods  of  government  and  administration,  and 
the  increased  facilities  of  communication  by  the  making 
of  roads  and  the  building  of  railways,  have  given  a  great 
stimulus  to  trade  and  have  enabled  that  active  propagandist, 

1  Mohammedanism  in  Africa,  by  R.  Bosworth  Smith.  (The  Nineteenth 
Century,  December  1887,  pp.  798-800.) 

2  Le  Chatelier,  (3),  p.  348. 


362  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  Muslim  trader,  to  extend  his  influence  in  districts 
previously  untrodden,  and  traverse  familiar  ground  with 
greater  security.  Further,  the  suppression  of  the  slave- 
trade  has  removed  one  of  the  great  obstacles  to  the  spread 
of  Islam  in  pagan  Africa,  because  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the 
Arab  and  other  Muhammadan  slave-dealers  not  to  narrow 
the  field  of  their  operations  by  admitting  their  possible 
victims  into  the  brotherhood  of  Islam.1  Converts  are  now 
won  from  pagan  tribes  which  in  the  days  of  the  slave-trade 
were  untouched  by  missionary  effort.  To  this  result  the 
European  governments  have  contributed  by  employing 
Muhammadans  to  fill  the  subordinate  posts  in  the  civil 
administration  (since  among  the  Muhammadans  alone  were 
educated  persons  to  be  found)  and  distributing  them 
throughout  pagan  districts,  by  employing  Muhammadan 
teachers  in  the  Government  schools,  and  by  recruiting  their 
armies  from  among  Muhammadan  tribes;  they  have  thus 
added  to  the  prestige  of  Islam  in  the  eyes  of  the  pagan 
Africans— a  circumstance  that  the  Muslims  have  not  been 
slow  to  make  use  of,  to  the  advantage  of  their  own  faith.2 

So  little  truth  is  there  in  the  statement  that  Islam  makes 
progress  only  by  force  of  arms,3  that  on  the  contrary  the 
partition  of  Africa  among  the  European  powers,  who  have 
wrested  the  sword  from  the  hands  of  the  Muslim  chiefs 
now  under  their  control,  has  initiated  a  propaganda  which 
seems  likely  to  succeed  where  centuries  of  Muhammadan 
domination  have  failed. 

1  Forget,  p.  95.  Merensky,  p.  15b.  ("  Den  Vertretern  des  Islam  aber 
stand  ihr  Vorteil,  der  Gewinn,  den  die  Unterdrvickung  der  Eingebornen 
bringt,  hoher  als  die  Ausbreitung  ihres  Glaubens.  Hatte  man  die  Volker 
Afrikas  durch  die  Macht  geistiger  Waffen  unter  giitigem  Entgegenkommen 
zu  Mohammedanern  gemacht,  so  waren  sie  Glaubensgenossen,  gleichberech- 
tige  Brvider,  die  man  nicht  mehr  berauben,  zu  Sklaven  machen,  oder  als 
Sklaven  nur  Arbeit  ausnutzen  konnte.") 

2  Westermann,  p.  643.     L.  de  Contenson,  p.  244.     Kumm,  p.  122. 

3  Thus  Merensky,  discussing  the  failure  of  Islam  to  dominate  the  whole 
of  Africa  after  centuries  of  occupation  says  : — "  Wir  sehen  die  Ursache  fur 
diese  merkwiirdige  Erscheinung  in  den  Beziehungen,  in  denen  bei  den 
Mohammedanern  die  aussere  Gewalt  zum  Islam  und  zur  Ausbreitung  des 
Islam  steht.  Beides  steht  und  fallt  miteinander,  dringt  miteinander  vor 
und  geht  miteinander  auch  wieder  zuriick."     (p.  156.) 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO. 

The  history  of  the  Malay  Archipelago  during  the  last 
600  years  furnishes  us  with  one  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  in  the  story  of  the  spread  of  Islam  by  missionary 
efforts.  During  the  whole  of  this  period  we  find  evidences 
of  a  continuous  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Muhammadan 
missionaries,  in  one  or  other  at  least  of  the  East  India 
islands.  In  every  instance,  in  the  beginning,  their  work 
had  to  be  carried  on  without  any  patronage  or  assistance 
from  the  rulers  of  the  country,  but  solely  by  the  force  of 
persuasion,  and  in  many  cases  in  the  face  of  severe  opposi- 
tion, especially  on  the  part  of  the  Spaniards.  But  in  spite 
of  all  difficulties,  and  with  varying  success,  they  have 
prosecuted  their  efforts  with  untiring  energy,  perfecting 
their  work  (more  especially  in  the  present  day)  wherever  it 
has  been  partial  or  insufficient. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  the  precise  date  of  the  first  intro- 
duction of  Islam  into  the  Malay  Archipelago.  It  may  have 
been  carried  thither  by  the  Arab  traders  in  the  early 
centuries  of  the  Hijrah,  long  before  we  have  any  historical 
notices  of  such  influences  being  at  work.  This  supposition 
is  rendered  the  more  probable  by  the  knowledge  we  have 
of  the  extensive  commerce  with  the  East  carried  on  by  the 
Arabs  from  very  early  times.  In  the  second  century  B.C. 
the  trade  with  Ceylon  was  wholly  in  their  hands.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  seventh  century  of  the  Christian  era,  the 
trade  with  China,  through  Ceylon,  received  a  great  impulse, 
so  that  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  Arab  traders 
were  to  be  found  in  great  numbers  in  Canton ;  while  from 
the  tenth  to  the  fifteenth  century,  until  the  arrival  of  the 
Portuguese,  they  were  undisputed  masters  of  the  trade  with 

363 


364  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  East.1  We  may  therefore  conjecture  with  tolerable 
certainty  that  they  must  have  established  their  commercial 
settlements  on  some  of  the  islands  of  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
as  they  did  elsewhere,  at  a  very  early  period  :  though  no 
mention  is  made  of  these  islands  in  the  works  of  the  Arab 
geographers  earlier  than  the  ninth  century,2  yet  in  the 
Chinese  annals,  under  the  date  a.d.  674,  an  account  is  given 
of  an  Arab  chief,  who  from  later  notices  is  conjectured  to 
have  been  the  head  of  an  Arab  settlement  on  the  west 
coast  of  Sumatra.3 

Missionaries  must  also,  however,  have  come  to  the  Malay 
Archipelago  from  the  south  of  India,  judging  from  certain 
peculiarities  of  Muhammadan  theology  adopted  by  the 
islanders.  Most  of  the  Musalmans  of  the  Archipelago 
belong  to  the  ShafViyyah  sect,  which  is  at  the  present  day 
predominant  on  the  Coromandel  and  Malabar  coasts,  as 
was  the  case  also  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  when  Ibn  Batutah  visited  these  parts.4  So  when 
we  consider  that  the  Muhammadans  of  the  neighbouring 
countries  belong  to  the  Hananyyah  sect,  we  can  only  explain 
the  prevalence  of  Shaft' iyyah  teachings  by  assuming  them  to 
have  been  brought  thither  from  the  Malabar  coast,  the 
ports  of  which  were  frequented  by  merchants  from  Java, 
as  well  as  from  China,  Yaman  and  Persia.5  From  India, 
too,  or  from  Persia,  must  have  come  the  Shf  ism,  of  which 
traces  are  still  found  in  Java  and  Sumatra.  From  Ibn 
Batutah  we  learn  that  the  Muhammadan  Sultan  of  Samudra 
had  entered  into  friendly  relations  with  the  court  of  Dehli, 
and  among  the  learned  doctors  of  the  law  whom  this  devout 
prince  especially  favoured,  there  were  two  of  Persian 
origin,  the  one  coming  from  Shiraz  and  the  other  from 
Ispahan.6  But  long  before  this  time  merchants  from  the 
Deccan,  through  whose  hands  passed  the  trade  between 
the  Musalman  states  of  India  and  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
had  established  themselves  in  large  numbers  in  the  trading 

1  Niemann,  p.  337. 

2  Reinaud  :  Geographie  d'Aboulfeda,  tome  i.  p.  cccxxxix. 

3  Groeneveldt,  pp.  14,  15. 

4  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  pp.  66,  80. 

5  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  p.  231.     Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  p.  89. 

6  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  pp.  230,  234. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      365 

ports  of  these  islands,  where  they  sowed  the  seed  of  the  new 
religion.1 

It  is  to  the  proselytising  efforts  of  these  Arab  and  Indian 
merchants  that  the  native  Muhammadan  population,  which 
we  find  already  in  the  earliest  historical  notices  of  Islam  in 
these  parts,  owes  its  existence.  Settling  in  the  centres  of 
commerce,  they  intermarried  with  the  people  of  the  land, 
and  these  heathen  wives  and  the  slaves  of  their  households 
thus  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  Muslim  community  which  its 
members  made  every  effort  in  their  power  to  increase. 
The  following  description  of  the  methods  adopted  by  these 
merchant  missionaries  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  gives  a 
picture  of  what  was  no  doubt  the  practice  of  many  preced- 
ing generations  of  Muhammadan  traders  : — "  The  better  to 
introduce  their  religion  into  the  country,  the  Muhammadans 
adopted  the  language  and  many  of  the  customs  of  the 
natives,  married  their  women,  purchased  slaves  in  order  to 
increase  their  personal  importance,  and  succeeded  finally 
in  incorporating  themselves  among  the  chiefs  who  held 
the  foremost  rank  in  the  state.  Since  they  worked  together 
with  greater  ability  and  harmony  than  the  natives,  they 
gradually  increased  their  power  more  and  more,  as  having 
numbers  of  slaves  in  their  possession,  they  formed  a  kind 
of  confederacy  among  themselves  and  established  a  sort  of 
monarchy,  which  they  made  hereditary  in  one  family. 
Though  such  a  confederacy  gave  them  great  power,  yet 
they  felt  the  necessity  of  keeping  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  old  aristocracy,  and  of  ensuring  their  freedom  to  those 
classes  whose  support  they  could  not  afford  to  dispense 
with."  2  It  must  have  been  in  some  such  way  as  this 
that  the  different  Muhammadan  settlements  in  the  Malay 
Archipelago  laid  a  firm  political  and  social  basis  for  their 
proselytising  efforts.  They  did  not  come  as  conquerors, 
like  the  Spanish  in  the  sixteenth  century,  or  use  the  sword 
as  an  instrument  of  conversion;  nor  did  they  arrogate  to 
themselves  the  privileges  of  a  superior  and  dominant  race 
so  as  to  degrade  and  oppress  the  original  inhabitants,  but 
coming  simply  in  the  guise  of  traders  they  employed  all 

1  Snouck  Hurgronje  (i),  pp.  8-9. 

2  Padre  Gainza,  quoted  by  C.  Semper,  p.  67. 


366  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

their  superior  intelligence  and  civilisation  in  the  service  of 
their  religion,  rather  than  as  a  means  towards  their  personal 
aggrandisement  and  the  amassing  of  wealth.1  With  this 
general  statement  of  the  subsidiary  means  adopted  by  them, 
let  us  follow  in  detail  their  proselytising  efforts  through 
the  various  islands  in  turn. 

Tradition  represents  Islam  as  having  been  introduced  into 
Sumatra  from  Arabia.  But  there  is  no  sound  historical 
basis  for  such  a  belief,  and  all  the  evidence  seems  to  point 
to  India  as  the  source  from  which  the  people  of  Sumatra 
derived  their  knowledge  of  the  new  faith.  Active  com- 
mercial relations  had  existed  for  centuries  between  India 
and  the  Malay  Archipelago,  and  the  first  missionaries  to 
Sumatra  were  probably  Indian  traders.2  There  is,  however, 
no  historical  record  of  their  labours,  and  the  Malay  chronicles 
ascribe  the  honour  of  being  the  first  missionary  to  Atjeh, 
in  the  north-west  of  Sumatra,  to  an  Arab  named  'Abd 
Allah  'Arif,  who  is  said  to  have  visited  the  island  about 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century;  one  of  his  disciples, 
Burhan  al-Din,  is  said  to  have  carried  the  knowledge  of 
the  faith  down  the  west  coast  as  far  as  Priaman.3  Un- 
trustworthy as  this  record  is,  it  may  yet  possibly  indicate 
the  existence  of  some  proselytising  activity  about  this 
period;  for  the  Malay  chronicle  of  Atjeh  gives  1205  as 
the  date  of  the  accession  of  Julian  Shah,  the  traditionary 
founder  of  the  Muhammadan  dynasty.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  a  stranger  from  the  West,4  and  to  have  come  to  these 
shores  to  preach  the  faith  of  the  Prophet;  he  made  many 
proselytes,  married  a  wife  from  among  the  people  of  the 
country,  and  was  hailed  by  them  as  their  king,  under  the 
half -Sanskrit,  half-Arabic  title  of  Sri  Paduka  Sultan.  For 
some  time  the  new  faith  would  in  all  probability  have  been 
confined  to  the  ports  at  which  Muhammadan  merchants 
touched,  and  its  progress  inland  would  be  slower,  as  here 

1  Crawfurd  (2),  vol.  ii.  p.  265. 

2  Snouck  Hurgronje  :  L'Arabie  et  les  Indes  Neerlandaises.  (Revue  de 
l'Histoire  des  Religions,  vol.  lvii.  p.  69  sqq.) 

3  De  Hollander,  vol.  i.  p.  581.     Veth  (1),  p.  60. 

4  This  vague  reference  would  fit  either  Arabia,  Persia  or  India;  but  if 
such  a  person  as  Juhan  Shah  ever  existed,  he  probably  came  from  the 
Coromandel  or  Malabar  coast.  (Chronique  du  Royaume  d'Atcheh,  traduite 
du  Malay  par  Ed.  Dulaurier,  p.  7.) 


ISLAM   IN  THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      367 

it  would  come  up  against  the  strong  Hindu  influences  that 
had  their  centre  in  the  kingdom  of  Menangkabau. 

Marco  Polo,  who  spent  five  months  on  the  north  coast 
of  Sumatra  in  1292,  speaks  of  all  the  inhabitants  being 
idolaters,  except  in  the  petty  kingdom  of  Parlak  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  island,  where,  too,  only  the  townspeople 
were  Muhammadans,  for  "  this  kingdom,  you  must  know,  is 
so  much  frequented  by  the  Saracen  merchants  that  they  have 
converted  the  natives  to  the  Law  of  Mahommet,"  but  the 
hill-people  were  all  idolaters  and  cannibals.1  Further,  one 
of  the  Malay  chronicles  says  that  it  was  Sultan  'All  Mughayat 
Shah,  who  reigned  over  Atjeh  from  1507  to  1522,  who  first 
set  the  example  of  embracing  Islam,  in  which  he  was 
followed  by  his  subjects.2  But  it  is  not  improbable  that 
the  honour  of  being  the  first  Muslim  ruler  of  the  state  has 
been  here  attributed  as  an  added  glory  to  the  monarch  who 
founded  the  greatness  of  Atjeh  and  began  to  extend  its 
sway  over  the  neighbouring  country,  and  that  he  rather 
effected  a  revival  of,  or  imparted  a  fresh  impulse  to,  the 
religious  life  of  his  subjects  than  gave  to  them  their  first 
knowledge  of  the  faith  of  the  Prophet.  For  Islam  had 
certainly  set  firm  foot  in  Sumatra  long  before  his  time. 
According  to  the  traditionary  account  of  the  city  of 
Samudra,  the  Sharif  of  Mecca  sent  a  mission  to  convert  the 
people  of  Sumatra.  The  leader  of  the  party  was  a  certain 
Shaykh  Isma'il :  the  first  place  on  the  island  at  which  they 
touched,  after  leaving  Malabar,  was  Pasuri  (probably 
situated  a  little  way  down  the  west  coast),  the  people  of 
which  were  persuaded  by  their  preaching  to  embrace 
Islam.  They  then  proceeded  northward  to  Lambri  and 
then  coasted  round  to  the  other  side  of  the  island  and  sailed 
as  far  down  the  east  coast  as  Aru,  nearly  opposite  Malacca, 
and  in  both  of  these  places  their  efforts  were  crowned  with 
a  like  success.  At  Aru  they  made  inquiries  for  Samudra, 
a  city  on  the  north  coast  of  the  island,  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  special  object  of  their  mission,  and  found  that  they 
had  passed  it.  Accordingly  they  retraced  their  course  to 
Parlak,  where  Marco  Polo  had  found  a  Muhammadan 
community  a  few  years  before,  and  having  gained  fresh 

1  Marco  Polo,  vol.  ii.  p.  284.  2  Veth  (i),  p.  61. 


368  THE   PREACHING  OF   ISLAM 

converts  here  also,  they  went  on  to  Samudra.  This  city 
and  the  kingdom  of  the  same  name  had  lately  been  founded 
by  a  certain  Mara  Silu,  who  was  persuaded  by  Shaykh  Isma'il 
to  embrace  Islam,  and  took  the  name  of  al-Malik  al-Salih. 
He  married  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  Parlak,  by  whom  he 
had  two  sons,  and  in  order  to  have  a  principality  to  leave 
to  each,  he  founded  the  Muhammadan  city  and  kingdom 
of  Pasei,  also  on  the  north  coast.1 

The  king,  al-Malik  al-Zahir,  whom  Ibn  Batutah  found 
reigning  in  Samudra  when  he  visited  the  island  in  1345,  was 
probably  the  elder  of  these  two  sons.  This  prince  displayed 
all  the  state  of  Muhammadan  royalty,  and  his  dominions 
extended  for  many  days'  journey  along  the  coast;  he  was 
a  zealous  and  orthodox  Muslim,  fond  of  holding  discussions 
with  jurisconsults  and  theologians,  and  his  court  was 
frequented  by  poets  and  men  of  learning.  Ibn  Batutah 
gives  us  the  names  of  two  jurisconsults  who  had  come  thither 
from  Persia  and  also  of  a  noble  who  had  gone  on  an  embassy 
to  Dehli  on  behalf  of  the  king — which  shows  that  Sumatra 
was  already  in  touch  with  several  parts  of  the  Muhammadan 
world.  Al-Malik  al-gahir  was  also  a  great  general,  and  made 
war  on  the  heathen  of  the  surrounding  country  until  they 
submitted  to  his  rule  and  paid  tribute.2 

Islam  had  undoubtedly  by  this  time  made  great  progress 
in  Sumatra,  and  after  having  established  itself  along  the 
coast,  began  to  make  its  way  inland.  The  mission  of 
Shaykh  Isma/Il  and  his  party  had  borne  fruit  abundantly, 
for  a  Chinese  traveller  who  visited  the  island  in  1413,  speaks 
of  Lambri  as  having  a  population  of  1000  families,  all  of 
whom  were  Muslims  "  and  very  good  people,"  while  the 
king  and  people  of  the  kingdom  of  Aru  were  all  of  the  same 
faith.3  It  was  either  about  the  close  of  the  same  century 
or  in  the  fifteenth  century,  that  the  religion  of  the  Prophet 
found  adherents  in  the  great  kingdom  of  Menangkabau, 
whose  territory  at  one  time  extended  from  one  shore  to 
another,  and  over  a  great  part  of  the  island,  north  and  south 
of  the  equator.4    Though  its  power  had  by  this  time  much 

1  Yule's  Marco  Polo,  vol.  ii.  pp.  294,  303. 

2  Ibn  Batutah,  tome  iv.  pp.  230-6.  3  Groeneveldt,  p.  94. 

4  At  the  height  of  its  power,  it  stretched  from  2°  N.  to  2°  S.  on  the  west 
coast,  and  from  i°  N.  to  20  S.  on  the  east  coast,  but  in  the  sixteenth  century 
it  had  lost  its  control  over  the  east  coast.     (De  Hollander,  vol.  i.  p.  3.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      369 

declined,  still  as  an  ancient  stronghold  of  Hinduism  it 
presented  great  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  progress  of  the 
new  religion.  Despite  this  fact,  Islam  eventually  took 
firmer  root  among  the  subjects  of  this  kingdom  than  among 
the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  interior  of  the  island.1 
It  is  very  remarkable  that  this,  the  most  central  people  of 
the  island,  should  have  been  more  thoroughly  converted 
than  the  inhabitants  of  so  many  other  districts  that  were 
more  accessible  to  foreign  influences.  To  the  present  day 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Batak  country  are  still,  for  the 
most  part,  heathen;  but  Islam  has  gained  a  footing  among 
them,  e.  g.  some  living  on  the  borders  of  Atjeh  have  been 
converted,  by  their  Muhammadan  neighbours,2  others 
dwelling  in  the  mountains  of  the  Rau  country  on  the 
equator  have  likewise  become  Musalmans ;  3  on  the  east 
coast  also  conversions  of  Bataks,  who  come  much  in  contact 
with  Malays,  are  not  uncommon.4 

The  fanatical  Padris  (p.  372)  made  strenuous  efforts,  in 
vain,  to  force  Islam  upon  the  Bataks  at  the  point  of  the 
sword,  laying  waste  their  country  and  putting  many  to 
death;  but  these  violent  methods  did  not  win  converts. 
When,  however,  the  Dutch  Government  suppressed  the 
Padri  rising  and  annexed  the  southern  part  of  the  Batak 
country,  Islam  began  to  spread  by  peaceful  means,  chiefly 
through  the  zealous  efforts  of  the  native  subordinate 
officials  of  the  new  regime,  who  were  all  Muhammadan 
Malays,5  but  also  through  the  influence  of  the  traders  who 
wandered  through  the  country,  whose  proselytising  activity 
was  followed  up  by  the  hajls  and  other  recognised  teachers 
of  the  faith.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Bataks, 
who  for  centuries  had  offered  a  pertinacious  resistance  to 
the  entrance  of  Islam  into  their  midst,  though  they  were 
hemmed  in  between  two  fanatical  Muhammadan  populations, 
the  Achinese  on  the  north  and  the  Malays  on  the  south, 
have  in  recent  years  responded  with  enthusiasm  to   the 

1  Marsden,  p.  343.  2  J.  H.  Moor.     (Appendix,  p.  1.) 

3  Marsden,  p.  355. 

4  Godsdienstige  verschijnselen  en  toestanden  in  Oost-Indie.  (Uit  de 
Koloniale  Verslagen  van  1886  en  1887.)  Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen,  vol. 
xxxii.  pp.  175-6.  (1888.)  In  1909,  out  of  a  total  of  500,000  Bataks, 
300,000  were  still  pagan,  but  125,000  were  Muslim  and  80,000  Christian. 
(R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  viii.  p.  183.) 

6  J.  Warneck  :  Die  Religion  der  Batak,  p.  122.     (Leipzig,   190Q.) 

B  B 


370  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

peaceful  efforts  made  for  their  conversion.  An  explanation 
would  appear  to  be  found  in  the  breaking  down  of  their 
exclusive  national  characteristics  through  the  Dutch  occupa- 
tion and  the  conquest  opening  up  their  country  to  foreign 
influences,  which  implied  the  commencement  of  a  new  era 
in  their  cultural  development,  as  well  as  in  the  skilful 
procedure  of  the  exponents  of  the  new  faith,  who  knew  how 
to  accommodate  their  teachings  to  the  existing  beliefs  of 
the  Bataks  and  their  deep-rooted  superstitions.1  A  con- 
siderable impulse  seems  to  have  been  given  to  Muslim 
propaganda  by  the  establishment  of  Christian  missions 
among  the  Bataks  in  1897,  and  they  appear  even  to  have 
paved  the  way  for  its  success.  Two  Batak  villages,  the 
entire  population  of  which  had  been  baptised,  are  said  to 
have  gone  over  in  a  body  to  Islam  shortly  afterwards.2 

In  Central  Sumatra  there  is  still  a  large  heathen  popula- 
tion, though  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  are  Muslims; 
but  these  latter  are  very  ignorant  of  their  religion,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  hajis  and  religious  teachers  :  even 
among  the  people  of  Korintji,  who  are  for  the  most  part 
zealous  adherents  of  the  faith,  there  are  certain  sections 
of  the  population  who  still  worship  the  gods  of  their  pagan 
ancestors.3  Efforts  are,  however,  being  made  towards  a 
religious  revival,  and  the  Muslim  missionaries  are  making 
fresh  conquests  from  among  the  heathen,  especially  along 
the  west  coast.4  In  the  district  of  Sipirok  a  religious 
teacher  attached  to  the  mosque  in  the  town  of  the  same 
name,  in  a  quarter  of  a  century,  converted  the  whole 
population  of  this  district  to  Islam,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Christians  who  were  to  be  found  there,  mostly  descendants 
of  former  slaves,5  and  a  later  missionary  movement  in  the 
first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century  succeeded  in  winning 
over  to  Islam  many  of  the  Christians  of  this  district,  even 

1  G.  R.  Simon  :  Die  Propaganda  des  Halbmondes.  Ein  Beitrag  zur 
Skizzierung  des  Islam  unter  den  Batakken,  pp.  425,  429-430.  (Allgemeine 
Missions-Zeitschrift,  vol.  xxvii.  1900.) 

2  R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  viii.  (1909),  p.  183. 

3  A.  L.  van  Hassalt,  pp.  55,  68. 

4  Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen,  id.  p.  173.  (Koloniaal  Verslag  van  191 1, 
p.  26;    1912,  p.  17.) 

6  Uit  het  Koloniaal  Verslag  van  1889.  (Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen, 
vol.  xxxiv.  p.  168.)      (1890.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY  ARCHIPELAGO      371 

some  living  in  the  centre  of  the  sphere  of  influence  of  the 
Christian  mission.1 

Islam  is  traditionally  represented  to  have  been  introduced 
into  Palembang  about  1440  by  Raden  Rahmat,  of  whose 
propagandist  activity  an  account  will  be  given  below 
(p.  381).  But  Hindu  influences  appear  to  have  been 
firmly  rooted  here,  and  the  progress  of  the  new  faith  was 
slow.  Even  up  to  the  nineteenth  century  the  Muslims  of 
Palembang  were  said  to  know  little  of  their  religion  except 
the  external  observances  of  it,  with  the  exception  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  capital  who  come  into  daily  contact  with 
Arabs ;  2  but  in  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century 
there  would  appear  to  have  been  a  revival  of  the  religious 
life  and  a  growing  propaganda,  as  the  Colonial  Reports  of 
the  Dutch  Government  draw  attention  to  the  continual 
spread  of  Islam  among  the  heathen  population  of  various 
districts  of  Palembang.3 

It  was  from  Java  that  Islam  was  first  brought  into  the 
Lampong  districts  which  form  the  southern  extremity  of 
Sumatra,  by  a  chieftain  of  these  districts,  named  Minak 
Kamala  Bumi.  About  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
he  crossed  over  the  Strait  of  Sunda  to  the  kingdom  of 
Bantam  on  the  west  coast  of  Java,  which  had  accepted  the 
teachings  of  the  Muslim  missionaries  a  few  years  before  the 
date  of  his  visit ;  here  he,  too,  embraced  Islam,  and  after 
making  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  spread  the  knowledge  of 
his  newly  adopted  faith  among  his  fellow-countrymen.4 
This  religion  has  made  considerable  progress  among  the 
Lampongs,  and  most  of  the  villages  have  mosques  in  them, 
but  the  old  superstitions  still  linger  on  in  parts  of  the 
interior.5 

In  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  religious 
revival  was  set  on  foot  in  Sumatra,  which  was  not  without 
its  influence  in  promoting  the  further  propagation  of  Islam. 
In  1803  three  Sumatran  hajis  returned  from  Mecca  to  their 
native  country  :  during  their  stay  in  the  holy  city  they  had 

1  Koloniaal  Verslag  van  1910,  p.  30. 

2  De  Hollander,  vol.  i.  p.  703. 

3  Koloniaal  Verslag  van  1904,  p.  80 ;  1905,  p.  46 ;  1909,  p,  47  ;  1910.  P«  33  » 
1911,  p.  29;  1912,  p.  21. 

4  Canne,  p.  510.  Marsden,  p.  301. 


372  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

been  profoundly  influenced  by  the  Wahhabi  movement  for 
the  reformation  of  Islam,  and  were  now  eager  to  introduce 
the  same  reforms  among  their  fellow-countrymen  and  to 
stir  up  in  them  a  purer  and  more  zealous  religious  life. 
Accordingly  they  began  to  preach  the  strict  monotheism 
of  the  Wahhabi  sect,  forbade  prayers  to  saints,  drinking  and 
gambling  and  all  other  practices  contrary  to  the  law  of  the 
Qur'an.  They  made  a  number  of  proselytes  both  from 
among  their  co-religionists  and  the  heathen  population. 
They  later  declared  a  Jihad  against  the  Bataks,  and  in  the 
hands  of  unscrupulous  and  ambitious  men  the  movement 
lost  its  original  character  and  degenerated  into  a  savage  and 
bloody  war  of  conquest.  In  182 1  these  so-called  Padris 
came  into  conflict  with  the  Dutch  Government  and  it  was 
not  until  1838  that  their  last  stronghold  was  taken  and 
their  power  broken.1 

All  the  civilised  Malays  of  the  Malay  Peninsula  trace  their 
origin  to  migrations  from  Sumatra,  especially  from  Menang- 
kabau,  the  famous  kingdom  mentioned  above,  which  is 
said  at  one  time  to  have  been  the  most  powerful  on  the 
island  ;  some  of  the  chiefs  of  the  interior  states  of  the  southern 
part  of  the  Malay  Peninsula  still  receive  their  investiture 
from  this  place.  At  what  period  these  colonies  from  the 
heart  of  Sumatra  settled  in  the  interior  of  the  Peninsula, 
is  matter  of  conjecture,  but  Singapore  and  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  Peninsula  seem  to  have  received  a  colony 
in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  by  the  descendants 
of  which  Malacca  was  founded  about  a  century  later.2 
From  its  advantageous  situation,  in  the  highway  of  eastern 
commerce  it  soon  became  a  large  and  flourishing  city,  and 
there  is  little  doubt  but  that  Islam  was  introduced  by  the 
Muhammadan  merchants  who  settled  here.3  The  Malay 
chronicle  of  Malacca  assigns  the  conversion  of  this  kingdom 
to  the  reign  of  a  certain  Sultan  Muhammad  Shah  who  came 
to  the  throne  in  1276.     He  is  said  to  have  been  reigning 

1  Niemann,  pp.  356-9.  2  J.  H.  Moor,  p.  255. 

3  "  Depois  que  estes  de  induzidos  por  os  Mouros  Parseos,  e  Guzarates 
(que  alii  vieram  residir  por  causa  do  commercio) ,  de  Gentios  os  converteram 
a  secta  de  Mahamed.  Da  qual  conversao  por  alii  concorrerem  varias 
nacoes,  comecou  laurar  esta  inferna  peste  pela  virzinhanca  de  Malaca." 
(De  Barros,  Dec.  ii.  Liv.  vi.  cap.  i.  p.  15.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE  MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      373 

some  years  before  a  ship  commanded  by  Sidi  'Abd  al-'Aziz 
came  to  Malacca  from  Jiddah,  and  the  king  was  persuaded 
by  the  new-comers  to  change  his  faith  and  to  give  up  his 
Malay  name  for  one  containing  the  name  of  the  Prophet.1 
But  the  general  character  of  this  document  makes  its 
trustworthiness  exceedingly  doubtful,2  in  spite  of  the 
likelihood  that  the  date  of  so  important  an  event  would 
have  been  exactly  noted  (as  was  done  in  many  parts  of  the 
Archipelago)  by  a  people  who,  proud  of  the  event,  would 
look  upon  it  as  opening  a  new  epoch  in  their  history.  A 
Portuguese  historian  gives  a  much  later  date,  namely  1384, 
in  which  year,  he  says,  a  Qadi  came  from  Arabia  and  having 
converted  the  king,  gave  him  the  name  of  Muhammad 
after  the  Prophet,  adding  Shah  to  it.3 

In  the  annals  of  Queda,  one  of  the  northernmost  of  the 
states  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  we  have  a  curious  account 
of  the  introduction  of  Islam  into  this  kingdom,  about 
a.d.  1501,4  which  (divested  of  certain  miraculous  incidents) 
is  as  follows  :  A  learned  Arab,  by  name  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah, 
having  come  to  Queda,  visited  the  Raja  and  inquired  what 
was  the  religion  of  the  country.  "  My  religion,"  replied 
the  Raja,  "  and  that  of  all  my  subjects  is  that  which  has 
been  handed  down  to  us  by  the  people  of  old.  We  all 
worship  idols."  "  Then  has  your  highness  never  heard  of 
Islam,  and  of  the  Qur'an  which  descended  from  God  to 
Muhammad,  and  has  superseded  all  other  religions,  leaving 
them  in  the  possession  of  the  devil  ?  "  "I  pray  you  then, 
if  this  be  true,"  said  the  Raja,  "  to  instruct  and  enlighten 
us  in  this  new  faith."  In  a  transport  of  holy  fervour  at 
this  request,  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  embraced  the  Raja  and 
then  instructed  him  in  the  creed.  Persuaded  by  his  teach- 
ing, the  Raja  sent  for  all  his  jars  of  spirits  (to  which  he  was 
much  addicted),  and  with  his  own  hands  emptied  them  on 
the  ground.  After  this  he  had  all  the  idols  of  the  palace 
brought  out ;  the  idols  of  gold,  and  silver,  and  clay,  and 

1  Aristide  Marre  :  Malaka.  Histoire  des  rois  malays  de  Malaka.  Traduit 
et  extrait  du  Livre  des  Annales  malayses,  intitule  en  arabe  belalet  al 
Selatyn,  p.  8.     (Paris,  1874.)  .         . 

*  Crawfurd  (1  ,  pp.  241-2.  3  De  Barros,  Dec.  iv.  Liy  11.  cap.  1 

*  Barbosa,  writing  in  1516,  speaks  of  the  numerous  Muhammadan 
merchants  that  frequented  the  port  of  Queda.     (Ramusio,  torn.  1.  p.  317-) 


374  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

wood  were  all  heaped  up  in  his  presence,   and  were  all 
broken  and  cut  to  pieces  by  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  with  his 
sword  and  with  an  axe,  and  the  fragments  consumed  in 
the  fire.     The  Shaykh  asked  the  Raja  to  assemble  all  his 
women  of  the  fort  and  palace.     When  they  had  all  come 
into  the  presence  of  the  Raja  and  the  Shaykh,  they  were 
initiated  into  the  doctrines  of  Islam.     The  Shaykh  was  mild 
and  courteous  in  his  demeanour,  persuasive  and  soft  in  his 
language,  so  that  he  gained  the  hearts  of  the  inmates  of  the 
palace.     The  Raja  soon  after  sent  for  his  four  aged  ministers, 
who,  on  entering  the  hall,  were  surprised  at  seeing  a  Shaykh 
seated  near  the  Raja.     The  Raja  explained  to  them  the 
object  of  the  Shaykh's  coming;  whereupon  the  four  chiefs 
expressed  their  readiness  to  follow  the  example  of  his  high- 
ness, saying,  "  We  hope  that  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  will  instruct 
us  also."     The  latter  hearing  these  words,  embraced  the 
four  ministers  and  said  that  he  hoped  that,  to  prove  their 
sincerity,  they  would  send  for  all  the  people  to  come  to 
the  audience  hall,  bringing  with  them  all  the  idols  that  they 
were  wont  to  worship  and  the  idols  that  had  been  handed 
down    by    the    men   of    former   days.      The    request    was 
complied    with    and    all    the    idols    kept    by    the    people 
were  at  that  very  time  brought  down  and  there  destroyed 
and  burnt  to  dust;   no  one  was  sorry  at  this  demolition 
of  their  false  gods,  all  were  glad  to  enter  the  pale  of  Islam. 
Shaykh  'Abd   Allah   after   this   said  to  the  four  ministers, 
"  What  is  the  name  of  your  prince  ?  '      They  replied,  "  His 
name  is  Pra  Ong  Mahawangsa."     "  Let  us  change  it  for 
one  in  the  language  of  Islam,"   said  the  Shaykh.     After 
some  consultation,  the  name  of  the  Raja  was  changed  at 
his  request  to  Sultan  Muzlaf  al-Shah,  because,  the  Shaykh 
averred,  it  is  a  celebrated  name  and  is  found  in  the  Qur'an.1 
The  Raja  now  built  mosques  wherever  the  population 
was  considerable,  and  directed  that  to  each  there  should  be 
attached  forty-four  of  the  inhabitants  at  least  as  a  settled 
congregation,  for  a  smaller  number  would  have  been  few  for 
the  duties  of  religion.     So  mosques  were  erected  and  great 

1  The  form  o»Jj.<e  does  not  actually  occur  in  the  Qur'an ;  reference  is 

*       a  j  o    *  a  *  bio        *  be.* 

probably  made  to  some  such  passage  as  xxvi.  90  :  ^Ju^X)  <UaJ  I   w-ftJjt^ 
"  And  paradise  shall  be  brought  near  the  pious." 


ISLAM   IN   THE  MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      375 

drums  were  attached  to  them  to  be  beaten  to  call  the  people 
to  prayer  on  Fridays.  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  continued  for 
some  time  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  religion  of  Islam; 
thev  flocked  to  him  from  all  the  coasts  and  districts  of 

J 

Queda  and  its  vicinity,  and  were  initiated  by  him  into  its 
forms  and  ceremonies. 

The  news  of  the  conversion  of  the  inhabitants  of  Queda 
by  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  reached  Atjeh,  and  the  Sultan  of 
that  country  and  a  certain  Shaykh  Nur  al-Dln,  an  Arab 
missionary,  who  had  come  from  Mecca,  sent  some  books 
and  a  letter,  which  ran  as  follows  : — "  This  letter  is  from 
the  Sultan  of  Atjeh  and  Nur  al-DIn  to  our  brother  the 
Sultan  of  Queda  and  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  of  Yaman,  now  in 
Queda.  We  have  sent  two  religious  books,  in  order  that 
the  faith  of  Islam  may  be  firmly  established  and  the  people 
fully  instructed  in  their  duties  and  in  the  rites  of  the  faith." 
A  letter  was  sent  in  reply  by  the  Raja  and  Shaykh  'Abd 
Allah,  thanking  the  donors.  So  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  re- 
doubled his  efforts,  and  erected  additional  small  mosques  in 
all  the  different  villages  for  general  convenience,  and  in- 
structed the  people  in  all  the  rules  and  observances  of  the 
faith.  The  Raja  and  his  wife  were  constantly  with  the 
Shaykh,  learning  to  read  the  Qur'an.  The  royal  pair  searched 
also  for  some  maiden  of  the  lineage  of  the  Rajas  of  the 
country,  to  be  the  Shaykh's  wife.  But  no  one  could  be 
found  who  was  willing  to  give  his  daughter  thus  in  marriage 
because  the  holy  man  was  about  to  return  to  Baghdad, 
and  only  waited  until  he  had  sufficiently  instructed  some 
person  to  supply  his  place.  Now  at  this  time  the  Sultan 
had  three  sons,  Raja  Mu'azzam  Shah,  Raja  Muhammad 
Shah,  and  Raja  Sulayman  Shah.  These  names  had  been 
borrowed  from  the  Qur'an  by  Shaykh  'Abd  Allah  and 
bestowed  upon  the  princes,  whom  he  exhorted  to  be 
patient  and  slow  to  anger  in  their  intercourse  with  their 
slaves  and  the  lower  orders,  and  to  regard  with  pity  all 
the  servants  of  God,  and  the  poor  and  needy.1 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  labours  of  Shaykh  'Abd 
Allah  were  crowned  with  complete  success,  for  we  learn 

1  A  translation  of  the  Keddah  Annals,  by  Lieut.-Col.  James  Low,  vol.  iii. 
PP-  474-7- 


376  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

from  the  annals  of  Atjeh  that  a  Sultan  of  this  country  who 
conquered  Queda  in  1649,  set  himself  to  "  more  firmly 
establish  the  faith  and  destroy  the  houses  of  the  Liar  ' '  or 
temples  of  idols.1  Thus  a  century  and  a  half  elapsed  before 
idolatry  was  completely  rooted  out. 

We  possess  no  other  details  of  the  history  of  the  conversion 
of  the  Malays  of  the  Peninsula,  but  in  many  places  the  graves 
of  the  Arab  missionaries  who  first  preached  the  faith  to 
them  are  honoured  by  these  people.2  Their  long  intercourse 
with  the  Arabs  and  the  Muslims  of  the  east  coast  of  India 
has  made  them  very  rigid  observers  of  their  religious  duties, 
and  they  have  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  exemplary 
Muhammadans  of  the  Archipelago ;  at  the  same  time  their 
constant  contact  with  the  Hindus,  Buddhists,  Christians 
and  pagans  of  their  own  country  has  made  them  liberal 
and  tolerant.  They  are  very  strict  in  the  keeping  of  the 
fast  of  Ramadan  and  in  performing  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca. 
The  religious  interests  of  the  people  are  always  considered 
at  the  same  time  as  their  temporal  welfare;  and  when  a 
village  is  found  to  contain  more  than  forty  houses  and  is 
considered  to  be  of  a  size  that  necessitates  its  organisation 
and  the  appointment  of  the  regular  village  officers,  a  public 
preacher  is  always  included  among  the  number  and  a  mosque 
is  formally  built  and  instituted.3 

In  the  north,  where  the  Malay  states  border  on  Siam, 
Islam  has  exercised  considerable  influence  on  the  Siamese 
Buddhists ;  those  who  have  here  been  converted  are  called 
Samsams  and  speak  a  language  that  is  a  mixed  jargon  of 
the  languages  of  the  two  people.4  Converts  are  also  made 
from  among  the  wild  tribes  of  the  Peninsula.5 

The  history  of  the  spread  of  Islam  in  Indo-China  is 
obscure ;  Arab  and  Persian  merchants  probably  introduced 
their  religion  into  the  sea-port  towns  from  the  tenth 
century  onwards,  but  its  most  important  expansion  was 
due  to  the  immigrations  of  Malays  which  began  at  the  close 
of  the  fourteenth  century.6 

1  A  translation  of  the  Keddah  Annals,  by  Lieut. -Col.  James  Low,  vol.  iiL 
p.  480. 

2  Newbold,  vol.  i.  p.  252.  3  McNair,  pp.  226-9. 

4  J.  H.  Moor,  p.  242.  5  Newbold,  vol.  ii.  pp.  106,  396. 

?  R.  du  M.  M.,  tome  ii  (1907),  pp.  137-8. 


ISLAM   IN   THE  MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      377 

We  must  now  go  back  several  centuries  in  order  to  follow 
out  the  history  of  the  conversion  of  Java.     The  preaching 
and  promulgation  of  the  doctrines  of  Islam  in  this  island 
were  undoubtedly  for  a  long  time  entirely  the  result  of  the 
labours  of  individual  merchants  or  of  the  leaders  of  small 
colonies,  for  in  Java  there  was  no  central  Muhammadan 
power  to  throw  in  its    influence  on  the  side  of  the  new 
religion  or  enforce  the  acceptance  of  it  by  warlike  means. 
On  the  contrary,  the  Muslim  missionaries  came  in  contact 
with  a  Hindu  civilisation,  that  had  thrust  its  roots  deep 
into  the  life  of  the  country  and  had  raised  the  Javanese 
to  a  high  level  of  culture  and  progress — expressing  itself 
moreover   in   institutions   and   laws   radically   different   to 
those  of  Arabia.     Even  up  to  the  present  day,  the  Mu- 
hammadan  law   has   failed   to   establish   itself   absolutely, 
even  where  the  authority  of  Islam  is  generally  predominant, 
and  there  is  still  a  constant  struggle  between  the  adherents 
of  the  old  Malayan  usages  and  the  Hajis,  who  having  made 
the  pilgrimage    to  Mecca,  return  enthusiastic  for  a  strict 
observance  of    Muslim    Law.      Consequently  the  work    of 
conversion  must  have  proceeded  very  slowly,  and  we  can 
say  with  tolerable  certainty  that  while  part  of  the  history 
of  this  proselytising  movement  may  be  disentangled  from 
legends  and  traditions,   much  of  it  must  remain  wholly 
unknown  to  us.     In  the  Malay  Chronicle,  which  purports 
to  give  us  an  account  of  the  first  preachers  of  the  faith, 
what  was  undoubtedly  the  work  of  many  generations  and 
must   have  been   carried  on  through  many  centuries,   is 
compressed  within  the  compass  of  a  few  years;  and,  as 
frequently  happens  in  popular  histories,  a  few  well-known 
names  gain  the  fame  and  credit  that  belongs  of  right  to  the 
patient  labours  of  their  unknown  predecessors.1     Further, 
the  quiet,  unobtrusive  labours  of  many  of  these  missionaries 
would  not  be  likely  to  attract  the  notice  of  the  chronicler, 
whose  attention  would  naturally  be  fixed  rather  on  the 
doings  of  kings  and  princes,  and  of  those  who  came  in  close 
relationship  to  them.     But  failing  such  larger  knowledge, 
we  must  fain  be  content  with  the  facts  that  have  been 
handed  down  to  us. 

1  Snouck  Hurgronje  (i),  p.  9- 


378  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

In  the  following  pages,  therefore,  it  is  proposed  to  give 
a  brief  sketch  of  the  establishment  of  the  Muhammadan 
religion  in  this  island,  as  presented  in  the  native  chronicle, 
which,  though  full  of  contradictions  and  fables,  has  un- 
doubtedly a  historical  foundation,  as  is  attested  by  the 
inscriptions  on  the  tombs  of  the  chief  personages  mentioned 
and  the  remains  of  ancient  cities,  etc.  The  following 
account  therefore  may,  in  the  want  of  any  other  authorities, 
be  accepted  as  substantially  correct,  with  the  caution  above 
mentioned  against  ascribing  too  much  efficacy  to  the 
proselytising  efforts  of  individuals. 

The  first  attempt  to  introduce  Islam  into  Java  was  made 
by  a  native  of  the  island  about  the  close  of  the  twelfth 
century.  The  first  king  of  Pajajaran,  a  state  in  the  western 
part  of  the  island,  left  two  sons ;  of  these,  the  elder  chose  to 
follow  the  profession  of  a  merchant  and  undertook  a  trading 
expedition  to  India,  leaving  the  kingdom  to  his  younger 
brother,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  the  year  1190  with 
the  title  of  Prabu  Munding  Sari.  In  the  course  of  his 
wanderings,  the  elder  brother  fell  in  with  some  Arab 
merchants,  and  was  by  them  converted  to  Islam,  taking  the 
name  of  Haji  Purwa. 

On  his  return  to  his  native  country,  he  tried  with  the  help 
of  an  Arab  missionary  to  convert  his  brother  and  the  royal 
family  to  his  new  faith ;  but,  his  efforts  proving  unsuccessful, 
he  fled  into  the  jungle  for  fear  of  the  king  and  his  unbelieving 
subjects,  and  we  hear  no  more  of  him.1 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  missionary 
movement,  which  was  attended  with  greater  success,  was 
instituted  by  a  certain  Mawlana  Malik  Ibrahim,  who  landed 
on  the  east  coast  of  Java  with  some  of  his  co-religionists, 
and  established  himself  near  the  town  of  Gresik,  opposite 
the  island  of  Madura.  He  is  said  to  have  traced  his  descent 
to  Zayn  al-'Abidm,  a  great-grandson  of  the  Prophet,  and 
to  have  been  cousin  of  the  Raja  of  Chermen.2  Here  he 
occupied  himself  successfully  in  the  work  of  conversion,  and 
speedily  gathered  a  small  band  of  believers  around  him. 

1  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  p.  215.     Raffles  (ed.  of  1830),  vol.  ii.  pp.  103,  104,  183. 

2  The  situation  of  Chermen  is  not  certain.  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  p.  230, 
conjectures  that  it  may  have  been  in  India,  but  Rouffaer  (p.  11511)  gives 
good  reasons  for  placing  it  in  Sumatra. 


ISLAM   IN  THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      379 

Later  on,  he  was  joined  by  his  cousin,  the  Raja  of  Chermen, 
who  came  in  the  hope  of  converting  the  Raja  of  the  Hindu 
Kingdom  of  Majapahit,  and  of  forming  an  alliance  with  him 
by  offering  his  daughter  in  marriage.  On  his  arrival  he 
sent  his  son,  Sadiq  Muhammad,  to  Majapahit  to  arrange  an 
interview,  while  he  busied  himself  in  the  building  of  a 
mosque  and  the  conversion  of  the  inhabitants.  A  meeting 
of  the  two  princes  took  place  accordingly,  but  before  the 
favourable  impression  then  produced  could  be  followed  up, 
a  sickness  broke  out  among  the  people  of  the  Raja  of  Cher- 
men,  which  carried  off  his  daughter,  three  of  his  nephews 
who  had  accompanied  him,  and  a  great  part  of  his  retinue ; 
whereupon  he  himself  returned  to  his  own  kingdom.  These 
misfortunes  prejudiced  the  mind  of  the  Raja  of  Majapahit 
against  the  new  faith,  which  he  said  should  have  better 
protected  its  votaries  :  and  the  mission  accordingly  failed. 
Mawlana  Ibrahim,  however,  remained  behind,  in  charge  of 
the  tombs  *  of  his  kinsfolk  and  co-religionists,  and  himself 
died  twenty-one  years  later,  in  1419,  and  was  buried  at 
Gresik,  where  his  tomb  is  still  venerated  as  that  of  the  first 
apostle  of  Islam  to  Java. 

A  Chinese  Musalman,  who  accompanied  the  envoy  of  the 
Emperor  of  China  to  Java  in  the  capacity  of  interpreter, 
six  years  before  the  death  of  Mawlana  Ibrahim,  i.  e.  in  1413, 
mentions  the  presence  of  his  co-religionists  in  this  island  in 
his  "  General  Account  of  the  Shores  of  the  Ocean,"  where 
he  says,  "  In  this  country  there  are  three  kinds  of  people. 
First  the  Muhammadans,  who  have  come  from  the  west, 
and  have  established  themselves  here ;  their  dress  and  food 
is  clean  and  proper;  second,  the  Chinese  who  have  run 
away  and  settled  here ;  what  they  eat  and  use  is  also  very 
fine,  and  many  of  them  have  adopted  the  Muhammadan 
religion  and  observe  its  precepts.  The  third  kind  are  the 
natives,  who  are  very  ugly  and  uncouth,  they  go  about 
with  uncombed  heads  and  naked  feet,  and  believe  devoutly 
in  devils,  theirs  being  one  of  the  countries  called  devil- 
countries  in  Buddhist  books."  2 

1  A  description  of  the  present  condition  of  these  tombs,  on  one  of  which 
traces  of  an  inscription  in  Arabic  characters  are  still  visible,  is  given  by 
J.  F.  G.  Brumund,  p.  185. 

2  Groeneveldt,  pp.  vii.  49~5°- 


38o  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

We  now  approach  the  period  in  which  the  rule  of  the 
Muhammadans  became  predominant  in  the  island,  after 
their  religion  had  been  introduced  into  it  for  nearly  a 
century ;  and  here  it  will  be  necessary  to  enter  a  little  more 
closely  into  the  details  of  the  history  in  order  to  show  that 
this  was  not  the  result  of  any  fanatical  movement  stirred 
up  by  the  Arabs,  but  rather  of  a  revolution  carried  out  by 
the  natives  of  the  country  themselves,1  who  (though  they 
naturally  gained  strength  from  the  bond  of  a  common 
faith)  were  stirred  up  to  unite  in  order  to  wrest  the  supreme 
power  from  the  hands  of  their  heathen  fellow-countrymen, 
not  by  the  preaching  of  a  religious  war,  but  through  the 
exhortations  of  an  ambitious  aspirant  to  the  throne  who 
had  a  wrong  to  avenge.2 

The  political  condition  of  the  island  may  be  described  as 
follows  : — The  central  and  eastern  provinces  of  the  island, 
which  were  the  most  wealthy  and  populous  and  the  furthest 
advanced  in  civilisation,  were  under  the  sway  of  the  Hindu 
kingdom  of  Majapahit.  Further  west  were  Cheribon  and 
several  other  petty,  independent  princedoms ;  while  the  rest 
of  the  island,  including  all  the  districts  at  its  western 
extremity,  was  subject  to  the  King  of  Pajajaran. 

The  King  of  Majapahit  had  married  a  daughter  of  the 
prince  of  Champa,  a  small  state  in  Cambodia,  east  of  the 
Gulf  of  Siam.3  She  being  jealous  of  a  favourite  concubine 
of  the  King,  he  sent  this  concubine  away  to  his  son  Arya 
Damar,  governor  of  Palembang  in  Sumatra,  where  she  gave 
birth  to  a  son,  Raden  Patah,  who  was  brought  up  as  one 
of  the  governor's  own  children.  This  child  (as  we  shall  see) 
was  destined  in  after  years  to  work  a  terrible  vengeance 
for  the  cruel  treatment  of  his  mother.  Another  daughter 
of  the  prince  of  Champa  had  married  an  Arab  who  had 
come  to  Champa  to  preach  the  faith  of  Islam.4  From  this 
union  was  born  Raden  Rahmat,  who  was  carefully  brought 
up  by  his  father  in  the  Muhammadan  religion  and  is  still 

1  Kern,  p.  21. 

2  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  pp.  233-42.     Raffles,  vol.  ii.  pp.  113-33. 

3  Rouffaer,  however,  places  this  Champa,  not  in  Cambodia,  but  on  the 
north  coast  of  Atjeh  and  identifies  it  with  the  modern  Djeumpa.  (Encyclo- 
paedic van  N.-I.,  vol.  iv.  p.  206.) 

4  Remains  of  minarets  and  Muhammadan  tombs  are  still  to  be  found 
in  Champa.     (Bastian,  vol.  i.  pp.  498-9.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      *8i 


.)i 


venerated  by  the  Javanese  as  the  chief  apostle  of  Islam  to 
their  country.1 

When  he  reached  the  age  of  twenty,  his  parents  sent  him 
with  letters  and  presents  to  his  uncle,  the  King  of  Majapahit. 
On  his  way,  he  stayed  for  two  months  at  Palembang,  as 
the  guest  of  Arya  Damar,  whom  he  almost  persuaded  to 
become  a  Musalman,  only  he  dared  not  openly  profess  Islam 
for  fear  of  the  people  who  were  strongly  attached  to 
their  ancient  superstitions.  Continuing  his  journey  Raden 
Rahmat  came  to  Gresik,  where  an  Arab  missionary,  Shaykh 
Mawlana  Jumada  '1-Kubra,  hailed  him  as  the  promised 
Apostle  of  Islam  to  East  Java,  and  foretold  that  the  fall 
of  paganism  was  at  hand,  and  that  his  labours  would 
be  crowned  by  the  conversion  of  many  to  the  faith. 
At  Majapahit  he  was  very  kindly  received  by  the  King 
and  the  princess  of  Chamba.  Although  the  King  was 
unwilling  himself  to  become  a  convert  to  Islam,  yet  he  con- 
ceived such  an  attachment  and  respect  for  Raden  Rahmat, 
that  he  made  him  governor  over  3000  families'  at  Ampel, 
on  the  east  coast,  a  little  south  of  Gresik,  allowed  him  the 
free  exercise  of  his  religion  and  gave  him  permission  to 
make  converts.  Here  after  some  time  he  gained  over  most 
of  those  placed  under  him,  to  Islam. 

Ampel  was  now  the  chief  seat  of  Islam  in  Java,  and  the 
fame  of  the  ruler  who  was  so  zealously  working  for  the 
propagation  of  his  religion,  spread  far  and  wide.     Hereupon 

1  This  genealogical  table  will  make  clear  these  relationships,  as  well  as 
others  referred  to  later  in  the  text : — 

King  of  Champa. 


a  daughter  a  daughter  =  an  Arab  missionary 

named 
A  concubine  =  Angka  Wijaya      =       Darawati 
king  of  Majapahit    | 


Arya  Damar 

I 
Raden  Husayn 


Raden 


<ahmat. 


Raden  Patah  =  a  daug 


a  daughter  =  Raden 
Paku 


iter 


382  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

a  certain  Mawlana  Ishaq  came  to  Ampel  to  assist  him  in 
the  work  of  conversion,  and  was  assigned  the  task  of  spread- 
ing the  faith  in  the  kingdom  of  Balambangan,  in  the 
extreme  eastern  extremity  of  the  island.  Here  he  cured  the 
daughter  of  the  King,  who  was  grievously  sick,  and  the 
grateful  father  gave  her  to  him  in  marriage.  She  ardently 
embraced  the  faith  of  Islam  and  her  father  allowed  himself 
to  receive  instruction  in  the  same,  but  when  the  Mawlana 
urged  him  to  openly  profess  it,  as  he  had  promised  to  do, 
if  his  daughter  were  cured,  he  drove  him  from  his  kingdom, 
and  gave  orders  that  the  child  that  was  soon  to  be  born  of 
his  daughter,  should  be  killed.  But  the  mother  secretly 
sent  the  infant  away  to  Gresik  to  a  rich  Muhammadan 
widow 1  who  brought  him  up  with  all  a  mother's  care  and 
educated  him  until  he  was  twelve  years  old,  when  she  en- 
trusted him  to  Raden  Rahmat.  He,  after  learning  the 
history  of  the  child,  gave  him  the  name  of  Raden  Paku,  and 
in  course  of  time  gave  him  also  his  daughter  in  marriage. 
Raden  Paku  afterwards  built  a  mosque  at  Giri,  to  the 
south-west  of  Gresik,  where  he  converted  thousands  to 
the  faith;  his  influence  became  so  great,  that  after  the 
death  of  Raden  Rahmat,  the  King  of  Majapahit  made  him 
governor  of  Ampel  and  Gresik.2  Meanwhile  several  missions 
were  instituted  from  Gresik.  Two  sons  of  Raden  Rahmat 
established  themselves  at  different  parts  of  the  north-east 
coast  and  made  themselves  famous  by  their  religious  zeal 
and  the  conversion  of  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  parts. 
Raden  Rahmat  also  sent  a  missionary,  by  name  Shaykh 
Khallfah  Husayn,  across  to  the  neighbouring  island  of 
Madura,  where  he  built  a  mosque  and  won  over  many  to 
the  faith. 

We  must  now  return  to  Arya  Damar,  the  governor  of 
Palembang.  (See  p.  380.)  He  appears  to  have  brought 
up  his  children  in  the  religion  which  he  himself  feared  openly 
to  profess,  and  he  now  sent  Raden  Patah,  when  he  had 
reached  the  age  of  twenty,  together  with  his  foster-brother, 
Raden  Husayn,  who  was  two  years  younger,  to  Java,  where 

c 

1  The  memory  of  this  woman  is  held  in  great  honour  by  the  Javanese, 
and  many  come  to  pray  by  her  grave.     See  Brumund,  p.  186. 

2  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  pp.  235-6. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      383 

they  landed  at  Gresik.  Raden  Patah,  aware  of  his  extrac- 
tion and  enraged  at  the  cruel  treatment  his  mother 
had  received,  refused  to  accompany  his  foster-brother  to 
Majapahit,  but  stayed  with  Raden  Rahmat  at  Ampel  while 
Raden  Husayn  went  on  to  the  capital,  where  he  was  well 
received  and  placed  in  charge  of  a  district  and  afterwards 
made  general  of  the  army. 

Meanwhile  Raden  Patah  married  a  granddaughter  of 
Raden  Rahmat,  and  formed  an  establishment  in  a  place 
of  great  natural  strength  called  Bintara,  in  the  centre  of 
a  marshy  country,  to  the  west  of  Gresik.  As  soon  as  the 
King  of  Majapahit  heard  of  this  new  settlement,  he  sent 
Raden  Husayn  to  persuade  his  brother  to  come  to  the 
capital  and  pay  homage.  This  Raden  Husayn  prevailed 
upon  him  to  do,  and  he  went  to  the  court,  where  his  likeness 
to  the  king  was  at  once  recognised,  and  where  he  was  kindly 
received  and  formally  appointed  governor  of  Bintara. 
Still  burning  for  revenge  and  bent  on  the  destruction  of  his 
father's  kingdom,  he  returned  to  Ampel,  where  he  revealed 
his  plans  to  Raden  Rahmat.  The  latter  endeavoured  to 
moderate  his  anger,  reminding  him  that  he  had  never  re- 
ceived anything  but  kindness  at  the  hands  of  the  king  of 
Majapahit,  his  father,  and  that  while  the  prince  was  so 
just  and  so  beloved,  his  religion  forbade  him  to  make  war 
upon  or  in  any  way  to  injure  him.  However,  unpersuaded 
by  these  exhortations  (as  the  sequel  shows),  Raden  Patah 
returned  to  Bintara,  which  was  now  daily  increasing  in 
importance  and  population,  while  great  numbers  of  people 
in  the  surrounding  country  were  being  converted  to  Islam. 
He  had  formed  a  plan  of  building  a  great  mosque,  but 
shortly  after  the  work  had  been  commenced,  news  arrived 
of  the  severe  illness  of  Raden  Rahmat.  He  hastened  to 
Ampel,  where  he  found  the  chief  missionaries  of  Islam 
gathered  round  the  bed  of  him  they  looked  upon  as  their 
leader.  Among  them  were  the  two  sons  of  Raden  Rahmat 
mentioned  above  (p.  382),  Raden  Paku  of  Giri,  and  five 
others.  A  few  days  afterwards  Raden  Rahmat  breathed 
his  last,  and  the  only  remaining  obstacle  to  Raden  Patau's 
revengeful  schemes  was  thus  removed.  The  eight  chiefs 
accompanied  him  back  to  Bintara,  where  they  assisted  in 


384  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

the  completion  of  the  mosque,1  and  bound  themselves  by 
a  solemn  oath  to  assist  him  in  his  attempt  against  Majapahit. 
All  the  Muhammadan  princes  joined  this  confederacy,  with 
the  exception  of  Raden  Husayn,  who  with  all  his  followers 
remained  true  to  his  master,  and  refused  to  throw  in  his 
lot  with  his  rebellious  co-religionists. 

A  lengthy  campaign  followed,  into  the  details  of  which  we 
need  not  enter,  but  in  1478, 2  after  a  desperate  battle  which 
lasted  seven  days,  Majapahit  fell  and  the  Hindu  supremacjr 
in  eastern  Java  was  replaced  by  a  Muhammadan  power. 
A  short  time  after,  Raden  Husayn  was  besieged  with  his 
followers  in  a  fortified  place,  compelled  to  surrender  and 
brought  to  Ampel,  where  he  was  kindly  received  by  his 
brother.  A  large  number  of  those  who  remained  faithful 
to  the  old  Hindu  religion  fled  in  1481  to  the  island  of  Bali, 
where  the  worship  of  Siva  is  still  the  prevailing  religion.3 
Others  seem  to  have  formed  small  kingdoms,  under  the 
leadership  of  princes  of  the  house  of  Majapahit,  which  re- 
mained heathen  for  some  time  after  the  fall  of  the  great 
Hindu  capital. 

Even  under  Muslim  chiefs  the  population  of  central 
Java  long  remained  heathen,  and  the  progress  of  Islam 
southward  from  the  early  centres  of  missionary  effort  on 
the  north  coast  was  the  work  of  centuries;  even  to  the 
present  day  the  influence  of  their  old  Hindu  faith  is  strikingly 

1  This  mosque  is  still  standing  and  is  looked  upon  by  the  Javanese  as 
one  of  the  most  sacred  objects  in  their  island. 

2  There  seems  little  doubt  that  this  date  is  too  early.  A  study  of  the 
Portuguese  authorities  points  to  the  conclusion  that  Majapahit  did  not 
fall  until  forty  years  later.     (Rouffaer,  p.  144.) 

3  The  people  of  the  Bali  to  the  present  day  have  resisted  the  most 
zealous  efforts  of  the  Muhammadans  to  induce  them  to  accept  the  faith 
of  Islam,  though  from  time  to  time  conversions  have  been  made  and  a 
small  native  Muhammadan  community  has  been  formed,  numbering 
about  3000  souls  out  of  a  population  of  over  862,000.  The  favour- 
able situation  of  the  island  for  purposes  of  trade  has  always  attracted  a 
number  of  foreigners  to  its  shores,  who  have  in  many  cases  taken  up 
a  permanent  residence  in  the  island.  While  some  of  these  settlers  have 
always  held  themselves  aloof  from  the  natives  of  the  country,  others  have 
formed  matrimonial  alliances  with  them  and  have  consequently  become 
merged  into  the  mass  of  the  population.  It  is  owing  to  the  efforts  of 
the  latter  that  Islam  has  made  this  very  slow  but  sure  progress,  and  the 
Muhammadans  of  Bali  are  said  to  form  an  energetic  and  flourishing  com- 
munity, full  of  zeal  for  the  promotion  of  their  faith,  which  at  least  impresses 
their  pagan  neighbours,  though  not  successful  in  persuading  them  to 
deny  their  favourite  food  of  swine's  flesh  for  the  sake  of  the  worship  of 
Allah.     (Liefrinck,  pp.  241-3.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      385 

manifest  in  the  religious  notions  of  the  Muslim  population 
of  central  Java.  One  remarkable  evidence  of  the  deep 
roots  that  Hinduism  had  struck  in  this  part  of  the  island 
is  the  fact  that  it  was  not  until  1768  that  the  authority  of 
the  Hindu  law-books,  particularly  the  code  of  Manu,  gave 
way  before  a  code  of  laws  more  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  Muslim  legislation.1 

Islam  was  introduced  into  the  eastern  parts  of  the  island 
some  years  later,  probably  in  the  beginning  of  the  following 
century,  through  the  missionary  activity  of  Shaykh  Nur 
al-Din  Ibrahim  of  Cheribon.  He  won  for  himself  a  great 
reputation  by  curing  a  woman  afflicted  with  leprosy,  with 
the  result  that  thousands  came  to  him  to  be  instructed  in 
the  tenets  of  the  new  faith.  At  first  the  neighbouring  chiefs 
tried  to  set  themselves  against  the  movement,  but  finding 
that  their  opposition  was  of  no  avail,  they  suffered  them- 
selves to  be  carried  along  with  the  tide  and  many  of  them 
became  converts  to  Islam.2  Shaykh  Nur  al-Dfn  Ibrahim 
of  Cheribon  sent  his  son,  Mawlana  Hasan  al-Din,  to  preach 
the  faith  of  Islam  in  Bantam,  the  most  westerly  province 
of  the  island,  and  a  dependency  of  the  heathen  kingdom  of 
Pajajaran.  Here  his  efforts  were  attended  with  considerable 
success,  among  the  converts  being  a  body  of  ascetics,  800 
in  number.  It  is  especially  mentioned  in  the  annals  of  this 
part  of  the  country  that  the  young  prince  won  over  those 
whom  he  converted  to  Islam,  solely  by  the  gentle  means 
of  persuasion,  and  not  by  the  sword.3  He  afterwards  went 
with  his  father  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  and  on  his  return 
extended  his  power  over  the  neighbouring  coast  of  Sumatra, 
without  ever  having  to  draw  the  sword,  and  winning 
converts  to  the  faith  by  peaceful  methods  alone.4 

But  the  progress  of  Islam  in  the  west  of  Java  seems  to 
have  been  much  slower  than  in  the  east;  a  long  struggle 
ensued  between  the  worshippers  of  Siva  and  the  followers 
of  the  Prophet,  and  it  was  probably  not  until  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  Hindu  kingdom  of 
Pajajaran,  which  at  one  period  of  the  history  of  Java  seems 

1  Encyclopaedie  van  N.-I.,  vol.  ii.  p.  523. 

2  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  pp.  245,  284. 

3  Raffles,  vol.  ii.  p.  316.  4  Veth  (3),  vol.  1.  pp.  285-6. 
CC 


386  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

to  have  exercised  suzerainty  over  the  princedoms  in  the 
western  part  of  the  island,  came  to  an  end,1  while  other 
smaller  heathen  communities  survived  to  a  much  later 
period,2 — some  even  to  the  present  day.  The  history  of 
one  of  these — the  so-called  Baduwis — is  of  especial  interest ; 
they  are  the  descendants  of  the  adherents  of  the  old  religion, 
who  after  the  fall  of  Pajajaran  fled  into  the  woods  and  the 
recesses  of  the  mountains,  where  they  might  uninterruptedly 
carry  out  the  observances  of  their  ancestral  faith.  In  later 
times,  when  they  submitted  to  the  rule  of  the  Musalman 
Sultan  of  Bantam,  they  were  allowed  to  continue  in  the 
exercise  of  their  religion,  on  condition  that  no  increase 
should  be  allowed  in  the  numbers  of  those  who  professed 
this  idolatrous  faith ;  3  and  strange  to  say,  they  still  observe 
this  custom,  although  the  Dutch  rule  has  been  so  long 
established  in  Java  and  sets  them  free  from  the  necessity 
of  obedience  to  this  ancient  agreement.  They  strictly 
limit  their  number  to  forty  households,  and  when  the 
community  increases  beyond  this  limit,  one  family  or  more 
has  to  leave  this  inner  circle  and  settle  among  the  Mu- 
hammadan  population  in  one  of  the  surrounding  villages.4 
But,  though  the  work  of  conversion  in  the  west  of  Java 
proceeded  more  slowly  than  in  the  other  parts  of  the  island, 
yet,  owing  largely  to  the  fact  that  Hinduism  had  not  taken 
such  deep  root  among  the  people  here  as  in  the  centre  of 
the  island,  the  victory  of  Islam  over  the  heathen  worship 
which  it  supplanted  was  more  complete  than  in  the  districts 
which  came  more  immediately  under  the  rule  of  the  Rajas 
of  Majapahit.  The  Muhammadan  law  is  here  a  living 
force  and  the  civilisation  brought  into  the  country  from 
Arabia  has  interwoven  itself  with  the  government  and  the 
life  of  the  people;  and  it  has  been  remarked  that  at  the 
present  day  the  Muhammadans  of  the  west  of  Java,  who 
study  their  religion  at  all  or  have  performed  the  pilgrim- 
age to  Mecca,  form  as  a  rule  the  most  intelligent  and 
prosperous  part  of  the  population.5 

1  Veth  (3),  vol.  i.  pp.  305,  318-9. 

2  A  traveller  in  Java  in  1596  mentions  two  or  three  heathen  kingdoms 
with  a  large  heathen  population.     (Niemann,  p.  342.) 

3  Raffles,  vol.  ii.  pp.  132-3.  *  Metzger,  p.  279. 
5  L.  W.  C.  van  den  Berg  (1),  pp.  35-6.     C.  Poensen,  pp.  3-8. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      387 

We  have  already  seen  that  large  sections  of  the  Javanese 
remained  heathen  for  centuries  after  the  establishment  of 
Muhammadan  kingdoms  in  the  island;  at  the  present  day 
the  whole  population  of  Java,  with  some  trifling  exceptions, 
is  Muhammadan,  and  though  many  superstitions  and 
customs  have  survived  among  them  from  the  days  of 
their  pagan  ancestors,  still  the  tendency  is  continually  in 
the  direction  of  the  guidance  of  thought  and  conduct  in 
accordance  with  the  teaching  of  Islam.  This  long  work  of 
conversion  has  proceeded  peacefully  and  gradually,  and  the 
growth  of  Muslim  states  in  this  island  belongs  rather  to 
its  political  than  to  its  religious  history,  since  the  progress 
of  the  religion  has  been  achieved  by  the  work  rather  of 
missionaries  than  of  princes. 

While  the  Musalmans  of  Java  were  plotting  against  the 
Hindu  Government  and  taking  the  rule  of  the  country  into 
their  own  hands  by  force,  a  revolution  of  a  wholly  peaceful 
character  was  being  carried  on  in  other  parts  of  the  Archi- 
pelago through  the  preaching  of  the  Muslim  missionaries 
who  were  slowly  but  surely  achieving  success  in  their 
proselytising  efforts.  Let  us  first  turn  our  attention  to 
the  history  of  this  propagandist  movement  in  the  Molucca 
islands. 

The  trade  in  cloves  must  have  brought  the  Moluccas  into 
contact  with  the  islanders  of  the  western  half  of  the  Archi- 
pelago from  very  early  times,  and  the  converted  Javanese 
and  other  Malays  who  came  into  these  islands  to  trade, 
:  spread  their  faith  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast.1 
The  companions  of  Magellan  brought  back  a  curious  story 
!of  the  way  in  which  these  men  introduced  their  religious 
i doctrines  among  the  Muluccans.  "The  kings  of  these 
islands  2  a  few  years  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards 

1  De  Barros,  Dec.  iii.   Liv.  v.  Cap.  v.  pp.   579-80.     Argensola,  p.    11  B 

2  At  this  period,  the  Moluccas  were  for  the  most  part  under  the  rule  of 
four  princes,  viz.  those  of  Ternate,  Tidor,  Gilolo  and  Batjan.  The  hrst 
was  by  far  the  most  powerful  :  his  territory  extended  over  Ternate  and 
the  neighbouring  small  islands,  a  portion  of  Halemahera,  a  considerable 
part  of  Celebes,  Amboina  and  the  Banda  islands.  The  Sultan  of  Tidor 
ruled  over  Tidor  and  some  small  neighbouring  islands,  a  portion  of  Halema- 
hera, the  islands  lying  between  it  and  New  Guinea,  together  with  the 
west  coast  of  the  latter  and  a  part  of  Ceram.     The  territory  of  the  Sultan 

;  of  Gilolo  seems  to  have  been  confined  to  the  central  part  of  Halemahera 
and  to  a  part  of  the  north  coast  of  Ceram;  while  the  Sultan  of  Batjan 
ruled  chiefly  over  the  Batjan  and  Obi  groups.     (De  Hollander,  vol.  1.  p.  5-) 


388  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

began  to  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  induced  by 
no  other  argument  but  that  they  had  seen  a  very  beautiful 
little  bird,  that  never  settled  on  the  earth  nor  on  anything 
that  was  of  the  earth,  and  the  Mahometans,  who  traded  as 
merchants  in  those  islands,  told  them  that  this  little  bird 
was  born  in  paradise,  and  that  paradise  is  the  place  where 
rest  the  souls  of  those  that  are  dead.  And  for  this  reason 
these  seignors  joined  the  sect  of  Mahomet,  because  it 
promises  many  marvellous  things  of  this  place  of  the  souls."  1 

Islam  seems  first  to  have  begun  to  make  progress  here 
in  the  fifteenth  century.  A  heathen  king  of  Tidor  yielded 
to  the  persuasions  of  an  Arab,  named  Shaykh  Mansur,  and 
embraced  Islam  together  with  many  of  his  subjects.  The 
heathen  name  of  the  king,  Tjireli  Lijatu,  was  changed  to 
that  of  Jamal  al-Din,  while  his  eldest  son  was  called  Mansur 
after  their  Arab  teacher.2  It  was  the  latter  prince  who 
entertained  the  Spanish  expedition  that  reached  Tidor  in 
1521,  shortly  after  the  ill-fated  death  of  Magellan.  Piga- 
fetta,  the  historian  of  this  expedition,  calls  him  Raia 
Sultan  Mauzor,  and  says  that  he  was  more  than  fifty-five 
years  old,  and  that  not  fifty  years  had  passed  since  the 
Muhammadans  came  to  live  in  these  islands.3 

Islam  seems  to  have  gained  a  footing  on  the  neighbouring 
island  of  Ternate  a  little  earlier.  The  Portuguese,  who  came 
to  this  island  the  same  year  as  the  Spaniards  reached  Tidor, 
were  informed  by  the  inhabitants  that  it  had  been  intro- 
duced a  little  more  than  eighty  years.4 

According  to  the  Portuguese  account  5  also  the  Sultan  of 
Ternate  was  the  first  of  the  Muluccan  chieftains  who  became 
a  Muslim.  The  legend  of  the  introduction  of  Islam  into 
this  island  tells  how  a  merchant,  named  Datu  Mulla  Husayn, 
excited  the  curiosity  of  the  people  by  reading  the  Qur'an 
aloud  in  their  presence ;  they  tried  to  imitate  the  characters 
written  in  the  book,  but  could  not  read  them,  so  they  asked 
the  merchant  how  it  was  that  he  could  read  them,  while 

1  Massimiliano  Transilvano.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  351  D.) 

2  P.  J.  B.  C.  Robide  van  der  Aa,  p.  18. 
:!  Pigafetta,  tome  i.  pp.  365,  368. 

4  "  Segundo  a  conta  que  elles  dam,  ao  tempo  que  os  nossos  descubriram 
aquellas  Unas,  haveria  pouco  mais  de  oitenta  annos,  que  nellas  tinha 
entradaestapeste."     (J.  deBarros  :  Da  Asia,  Dec.  iii.  Liv.  v.  Cap.  v.  p.  580.) 

6  De  Barros,  id.  ib. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      389 

they  could  not;  he  replied  that  they  must  first  believe  in 
God  and  His  Apostle;  whereupon  they  expressed  their 
willingness  to  accept  his  teaching,  and  became  converted 
to  the  faith.1  The  Sultan  of  Ternate,  who  occupied  the 
foremost  place  among  the  independent  rulers  in  these 
islands,  is  said  to  have  made  a  journey  to  Gresik,  in  Java, 
in  order  to  embrace  the  Muhammadan  faith  there,  in  1495. 2 
He  was  assisted  in  his  propagandist  efforts  by  a  certain 
Pati  Putah,  who  had  made  the  journey  from  Hitu  in  Amboina 
to  Java  in  order  to  learn  the  doctrines  of  the  new  faith,  and 
on  his  return  spread  the  knowledge  of  Islam  among  the 
people  of  Amboina.3  Islam,  however,  seems  at  first  to 
have  made  but  slow  progress,  and  to  have  met  with 
considerable  opposition  from  those  islanders  who  clung 
zealously  to  their  old  superstitions  and  mythology,  so 
that  the  old  idolatry  continued  for  some  time  crudely 
mixed  up  with  the  teachings  of  the  Qur'an,  and  keep- 
ing the  minds  of  the  people  in  a  perpetual  state  of 
incertitude.4  The  Portuguese  conquest  also  made  the 
progress  of  Islam  slower  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
been.  They  drove  out  the  Qadi,  whom  they  found 
instructing  the  people  in  the  doctrines  of  Muhammad, 
and  spread  Christianity  among  the  heathen  population 
with  some  considerable,  though  short-lived  success.5  For 
when  the  Muluccans  took  advantage  of  the  attention 
of  the  Portuguese  being  occupied  with  their  own  domestic 
troubles,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to 
try  to  shake  off  their  power,  they  instituted  a  fierce 
persecution  against  the  Christians,  many  of  whom  suffered 
martyrdom,  and  others  recanted,  so  that  Christianity 
lost  all  the  ground  it  had  gained,6  and  from  this  time 
onwards,  the  opposition  to  the  political  domination  of  the 
Christians  secured  a  readier  welcome  for  the  Muslim  teachers 
who  came  in  increasing  numbers  from  the  west.7     The  Dutch 

1  Simon,  p.  13.  2  Bokemeyer,  p.  39.  3  Simon,  p.  13. 

*  Argensola,  pp.  3-4.        5  Id.  p.  15  B.  6  Id.  pp.  97.  9». 

7  Id.  pp.  155  and  158,  where  he  calls  Ternate  "  este  receptaculo  de  setas, 
donde  tienen  escuela  todas  las  apostasias;  y  particularmente  los  torpes 
sequazes  de  Mahoma.  Y  desde  el  anno  de  mil  y  quimentos  y  ochenta  y 
cinco,  en  que  los  Holandeses  tentaron  aquellos  mares,  hasta  este  tiempo 
no  han  cessado  de  traer  sectarios,  y  capitanes  pyratas.  Estos  llevan  las 
riquezas  de  Assia,  y  en  su  lugar  dexan  aquella  falsa  dotnna,  con  que  hazen 
infrutuosa  la  conversion  de  tantas  almas." 


390  THE   PREACHING  OF  ISLAM 

completed  the  destruction  of  Christianity  in  the  Moluccas 
by  driving  out  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  from  these 
islands  in  the  seventeenth  century,  whereupon  the  Jesuit 
fathers  carried  off  the  few  remaining  Christians  of  Ternate 
with  them  to  the  Philippines. 1 

From  these  islands  Islam  spread  into  the  rest  of  the 
Moluccas ;  though  for  some  time  the  conversions  were  con- 
fined to  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast.2  Most  of  the  converts 
came  from  among  the  Malays,  who  compose  the  whole 
population  of  the  smaller  islands,  but  inhabit  the  coast-lands 
only  of  the  larger  ones,  the  interior  being  inhabited  by  Alfurs. 
But  converts  in  later  times  were  drawn  from  among  the 
latter  also.3  Even  so  early  as  1521,  there  was  a  Muham- 
madan  king  of  Gilolo,  a  kingdom  on  the  western  side  of  the 
northern  limb  of  the  island  of  Halemahera.4  In  modern 
times  the  existence  of  certain  regulations,  devised  for  the 
benefit  of  the  state-religion,  has  facilitated  to  some  extent 
the  progress  of  the  Muhammadan  religion  among  the  Alfurs 
of  the  mainland,  e.g.  if  any  one  of  them  is  discovered  to  have 
had  illicit  intercourse  with  a  Muhammadan  girl,  he  must 
marry  her  and  become  a  Muslim ;  any  of  the  Alfur  women 
who  marry  Muhammadans  must  embrace  the  faith  of  their 
husbands;  offences  against  the  law  may  be  atoned  for  by 
conversion  to  Islam ;  and  in  filling  up  any  vacancy  that  may 
happen  to  occur  among  the  chiefs,  less  regard  is  paid  to  the 
lawful  claims  of  a  candidate  than  to  his  readiness  to  become 
a  Musalman.5 

Similarly,  Islam  in  Borneo  is  mostly  confined  to  the  coast, 
although  it  had  gained  a  footing  in  the  island  as  early  as  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  About  this  time,  it 
was  adopted  by  the  people  of  Banjarmasin,  a  kingdom  on 
the  southern  side,  which  had  been  tributary  to  the  Hindu 
kingdom  of  Majapahit,  until  its  overthrow  in  1478;  6  they 
owed  their  conversion  to  one  of  the  Muhammadan  states 
that  rose  on  the  ruins  of  the  latter.7     The  story  is  that  the 

1  Their  descendants  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  province  of  Cavite  in  the 
island  of  Luzon.     (Crawfurd  (i),  p.  85.) 

2  W.  F.  Andriessen,  p.  222.  3  T.  Forrest,  p.  68. 

4  Pigafetta.     (Ramusio,  vol.  i.  p.  366.) 

5  Campen,  p.  346.     Koloniaal  Verslag  van  1910,  p.  56;    1911,  p.  52. 

6  Dulaurier,  p.  528. 

7  Pamak,  on  the  north  coast  of  Java,  opposite  the  south  of  Borneo. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      391 

people  of  Banjarmasin  asked  for  assistance  towards  the 
suppression  of  a  revolt,  and  that  it  was  given  on  condition 
that  they  adopted  the  new  religion;  whereupon  a  number 
of  Muhammadans  came  over  from  Java,  suppressed  the  revolt 
and  effected  the  work  of  conversion.1  On  the  north-west 
coast,  the  Spaniards  found  a  Muhammadan  king  at  Brunai, 
when  they  reached  this  place  in  1521.2  A  little  later,  1550, 
it  was  introduced  into  the  kingdom  of  Sukadana,3  in  the 
western  part  of  the  island,  by  Arabs  coming  from  Palembang 
in  Sumatra.4  The  reigning  king  refused  to  abandon  the 
faith  of  his  fathers,  but  during  the  forty  years  that  elapsed 
before  his  death  (in  1590),  the  new  religion  appears  to 
have  made  considerable  progress.  His  successor  became  a 
Musalman  and  married  the  daughter  of  a  prince  of  a  neigh- 
bouring island,  in  which  apparently  Islam  had  been  long 
established;5  during  his  reign,  a  traveller,6  who  visited  the 
island  in  1600,  speaks  of  Muhammadanism  as  being  a 
common  religion  along  the  coast.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
interior,  however,  he  tells  us,  were  all  idolaters — as  indeed 
they  remain  for  the  most  part  to  the  present  day.  The 
progress  of  Islam  in  the  kingdom  of  Sukadana  seems 
now  to  have  drawn  the  attention  of  the  centre  of  the  Muham- 
madan world  to  this  distant  spot,  and  in  the  reign  of  the  next 
prince,  a  certain  Shaykh  Shams  al-DIn  came  from  Mecca 
bringing  with  him  a  present  of  a  copy  of  the  Qur'an  and  a 
large  hyacinth  ring,  together  with  a  letter  in  which  this 
defender  of  the  faith  received  the  honourable  title  of  Sultan 
Muhammad  Safi  al-Din.7 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  one  of  the  in- 
land tribes,  called  the  Idaans,  dwelling  in  the  interior  of  north 
Borneo,  is  said  to  have  looked  upon  the  Muhammadans  of 

1  Hageman,  pp.  236-9. 

2  Pigafetta.     (Ramusio,  torn.  i.  pp.  363-4.) 

3  This  kingdom  had  been  founded  by  a  colony  from  the  Hindu  kingdom 
of  Majapahit  (De  Hollander,  vol.  ii.  p.  67),  and  would  naturally  have  come 
under  Muslim  influence  after  the  conversion  of  the  Javanese. 

4  Dozy  (i),  p.  386. 

5  Veth  (2),  vol.  i.  p.  193. 

6  Olivier  de  Noort.  (Histoire  generate  des  voyages,  vol.  xiv.  p.  225.) 
(The  Hague,  1756.) 

7  i.e.  Pure  in  Religion;  he  died  about  1677;  his  father  does  not  seem 
to  have  taken  a  Muhammadan  name,  at  least  he  is  only  known  by  his 
heathen  name  of  Panembahan  Giri-Kusuma.     (Netscher,  pp.  14-15O 


392  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

the  coast  with  very  great  respect,  as  having  a  religion  which 
they  themselves  had  not  yet  got.1     Dalrymple,  who  obtained 
his  information  on  the  Idaans  of  Borneo  during  his  visit  to 
Sulu  from  1761  to  1764,  tells  us  that  they  "  entertain  a  just 
regret  of  their  own  ignorance,  and  a  mean  idea  of  themselves 
on  that  account ;    for,  when  they  come  into  the  houses,  or 
vessels,   of  the   Mahometans,   they  pay  them  the  utmost 
veneration,    as    superior    intelligences,    who    know    their 
Creator;    they  will  not  sit  down  where  the  Mahometans 
sleep,  nor  will  they  put  their  fingers  into  the  same  chunam, 
or  betel  box,  but  receive  a  portion  with  the  utmost  humility, 
and  in  every  instance  denote,  with  the  most  abject  attitudes 
and  gesture,  the  veneration  they  entertain  for  a  God  un- 
known, in  the  respect  they  pay  to  those  who  have  a  know- 
ledge of  Him."  2     These  people  appear  since  that  time  to 
have  embraced  the  Muhammadan  faith,3  one  of  the  numerous 
instances  of  the  powerful  impression  that  Islam  produces 
upon  tribes  that  are  low  down  in  the  scale  of  civilisation. 
From  time  to  time  other  accessions  have  been  gained  in  the 
persons  of  the  numerous  colonists,  Arabs,  Bugis  and  Malays, 
as  well  as  Chinese  (who  have  had  settlements  here  since  the 
seventh  century),4  and  of  the  slaves  introduced  into  the 
island  from  different  countries;   so  that  at  the  present  day 
the  Muhammadans  of  Borneo  are  a  very  mixed  race.5     Many 
of  these  foreigners  were  still  heathen  when  they  first  came 
to  Borneo,  and  of  a  higher  civilisation  than  the  Dyaks  whom 
they  conquered  or  drove  into  the  interior,  where  they  mostly 
still  remain  heathen,  except  in  the  western  part  of  the  island, 
in  which  from  time  to  time  small  tribes  of  Dyaks  embrace 
Islam.6     When  the  pagan  Dyaks  change  their  faith,  it  is 
more  commonly  the  case  that  they  yield  to  the  persuasions 
of  the  Muhammadan  rather  than  to  those  of  the  Christian 
missionary,  or,  having  first  embraced  Christianity  they  then 
pass  over  to   Islam,   and  the  Muhammadans  are  making 
zealous  efforts  to  win  converts  both  from  among  the  heathen 
and  the  Christian  Dyaks.7 

In  the  island  of  Celebes  we  find  a  similar  slow  growth  of 

1  Thomas  Forrest,  p.  371.      2  Essay  towards  an  account  of  Sulu,  p.  557. 

3  B.  Panciera,  p.  161.  4  J.  Hageman,  p.  224. 

5  Veth  (2),  vol.  i.  p.  179.         6  De  Hollander,  vol.  ii.  p.  61. 

T  Coolsma,  p.  556.     Koloniaal  Verslag  van  191 1,  pp.  38,  41 ;  1912,  p.  30. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      393 

the  Muhammadan  religion,  taking  its  rise  among  the  people 
of  the  coast  and  slowly  making  its  way  into  the  interior. 
Only  the  more  civilised  portion  of  the  inhabitants  has,  how- 
ever, adopted  Islam;  this  is  mainly  divided  into  two  tribes, 
the  Macassars  and  the  Bugis,  who  inhabit  the  south-west 
peninsula,  the  latter,  however,  also  forming  a  large  proportion 
of  the  coast  population  on  the  other  peninsulas.  The  interior 
of  the  island,  except  in  the  south-west  peninsula  where 
nearly  all  the  inhabitants  are  Muhammadan,  is  still  heathen 
and  is  populated  chiefly  by  the  Alfurs,  a  race  low  in  the  scale 
of  civilisation,  who  also  form  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  north,  the  east  and  the  south-east  peninsulas ;  at  the 
extremity  of  the  first  of  these  peninsulas,  in  Minahassa, 
they  have  in  large  numbers  been  converted  to  Christianity ; 
the  Muhammadans  did  not  make  their  way  hither  until  after 
the  Portuguese  had  gained  a  firm  footing  in  this  part  of 
the  island,  and  the  Alfurs  whom  they  converted  to  Roman 
Catholicism  were  turned  into  Protestants  by  the  Dutch, 
whose  missionaries  have  laboured  in  Minahassa  with  very 
considerable  success.  But  Islam  is  slowly  making  its  way 
among  the  heathen  tribes  of  Alfurs  in  different  parts  of  the 
island,  both  in  the  districts  directly  administered  by  the 
Dutch  Government,  and  those  under  the  rule  of  native 
chiefs.1 

When  the  Portuguese  first  visited  the  island  about  1540, 
they  found  only  a  few  Muhammadan  strangers  in  Gowa,  the 
capital  of  the  Macassar  kingdom,  the  natives  being  still 
unconverted,  and  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  that  Islam  began  to  be  generally  adopted 
among  them.  The  history  of  the  movement  is  especially 
interesting,  as  we  have  here  one  of  the  few  cases  in  which 
Christianity  and  Islam  have  been  competing  for  the  allegiance 
of  heathen  people.  One  of  the  incidents  in  this  contest  is 
thus  admirably  told  by  an  old  compiler  :  "  The  discovery 
of  so  considerable  a  country  was  looked  upon  by  the  Portu- 
guese as  a  Matter  of  Great  Consequence,  and  Measures  were 
taken  to  secure  the  Affections  of  those  whom  it  was  not  found 
easy  to  conquer ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  capable  of  being 
obliged,  or  rendered  useful,  as  their  allies,  by  good  usage. 

1  Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  177;   vol.  xxxiv.  p.  170. 


394  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

The  People  were  much  braver,  and  withal  had  much  better 
Sense  than  most  of  the  Indians ;  and  therefore,  after  a  little 
Conversation  with  the  Europeans,  they  began,  in  general, 
to  discern  that  there  was  no  Sense  or  Meaning  in  their  own 
Religion ;  and  the  few  of  them  who  had  been  made  Christians 
by  the  care  of  Don  Antonio  Galvano  (Governor  of  the  Moluc- 
cas), were  not  so  thoroughly  instructed  themselves  as  to  be 
able  to  teach  them  a  new  Faith.  The  whole  People,  in 
general,  however,  disclaimed  their  old  Superstitions,  and 
became  Deists  at  once;  but,  not  satisfied  with  this,  they 
determined  to  send,  at  the  same  time,  to  Malacca  and  to 
Achin,1  to  desire  from  the  one,  Christian  Priests ;  and  from 
the  other,  Doctors  of  the  Mohammedan  Law;  resolving  to 
embrace  the  Religion  of  those  Teachers  who  came  first  among 
them.  The  Portugeze  have  hitherto  been  esteemed  zealous 
enough  for  their  Religion ;  but  it  seems  that  Don  Ruis  Perera, 
who  was  then  Governor  of  Malacca,  was  a  little  deficient 
in  his  Concern  for  the  Faith,  since  he  made  a  great  and  very 
unnecessary  delay  in  sending  the  Priests  that  were  desired. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Queen  of  Achin  being  a  furious 
Mohammedan  no  sooner  received  an  Account  of  this  Disposi- 
tion in  the  people  of  the  Island  of  Celebes  than  she  immedi- 
ately dispatched  a  vessel  full  of  Doctors  of  the  Law,  who  in 
a  short  time,  established  their  Religion  effectually  among  the 
Inhabitants.  Some  time  after  came  the  Christian  Priests, 
and  inveighed  bitterly  against  the  Law  of  Mohammed  but 
to  no  Purpose ;  the  People  of  Celebes  had  made  their  Choice, 
and  there  was  no  Possibility  of  bringing  them  to  alter  it. 
One  of  the  Kings  of  the  Island,  indeed,  who  had  before 
embraced  Christianity,  persisted  in  the  Faith,  and  most  of 
his  Subjects  were  converted  to  it ;  but  still,  the  Bulk  of  the 
People  of  Celebes  continued  Mohammedans,  and  are  so  to 
this  Day,  and  the  greatest  Zealots  for  their  Religion  of  any 
in  the  Indies."  2 

This  event  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  year  1603. 3 

1  i.  e.  Atjeh. 

-  A  Compleat  History  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Portugeze  Empire 
in  the  East  Indies.  Collected  chiefly  from  their  own  Writers.  John 
Harris  :  Navigantium  atque  Itinerantium  Bibliotheca,  vol.  i.  p.  682. 
(London,   1764.) 

3  Crawfurd  (1),  p.  91.  The  Encyclopaedic  van  N.-I.  (vol.  i.  p.  216) 
gives  1606  as  the  date. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      395 

The  frequent  references  to  it  in  contemporary  literature 
make  it  impossible  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  story.1 
In  the  little  principality  of  Tallo,  to  the  north  of  Gowa,  with 
which  it  has  always  been  confederated,  is  still  to  be  seen  the 
tomb  of  one  of  the  most  famous  missionaries  to  the  Macassars, 
by  name  Khatib  Tungal.  The  prince  of  this  state,  after  his 
conversion  proved  himself  a  most  zealous  champion  of  the 
new  faith,  and  it  was  through  his  influence  that  it  was 
generally  adopted  by  all  the  tribes  speaking  the  Macassar 
language.  The  sequel  of  the  movement  is  not  of  so  peaceful 
a  character.  The  Macassars  were  carried  away  by  their 
zeal  for  their  newly  adopted  faith,  to  make  an  attempt  to 
force  it  on  their  neighbours  the  Bugis.  The  king  of  Gowa 
made  an  offer  to  the  king  of  Boni  to  consider  him  in  all 
respects  as  an  equal  if  he  would  worship  the  one  true  God. 
The  latter  consulted  his  people  on  the  matter,  who  said, 
"  We  have  not  yet  fought,  we  have  not  yet  been  conquered." 
They  tried  the  issue  of  a  battle  and  were  defeated.  The  king 
accordingly  became  a  Muhammadan  and  began  on  his  own 
account  to  attempt  by  force  to  impose  his  own  belief  on  his 
subjects  and  on  the  smaller  states,  his  neighbours.  Strange 
to  say,  the  people  applied  for  help  to  the  king  of  Macassar, 
who  sent  ambassadors  to  demand  from  the  king  of  Boni  an 
answer  to  the  following  questions, — Whether  the  king,  in 
his  persecution,  was  instigated  by  a  particular  revelation 
from  the  Prophet  ? — or  whether  he  paid  obedience  to  some 
ancient  custom  ? — or  followed  his  own  personal  pleasure  ? 
If  for  the  first  reason,  the  king  of  Gowa  requested  informa- 
tion ;  if  for  the  second,  he  would  lend  his  cordial  co-opera- 
tion ;  if  for  the  third,  the  king  of  Boni  must  desist,  for  those 
whom  he  presumed  to  oppress  were  the  friends  of  Gowa. 
The  king  of  Boni  made  no  reply  and  the  Macassars  having 
marched  a  great  army  into  the  country  defeated  him  in 
three  successive  battles,  forced  him  to  fly  the  country,  and 
reduced  Boni  into  a  province.     After  thirty  years  of  sub- 

1  Fernandez  Navarette,  a  Spanish  priest,  who  went  to  the  Philippine 
Islands  in  1646.    (Collection  of  Voyages  and  Travels,  p.  236.    London,  1752.) 

Tavernier,  who  visited  Macassar  in  1648.  (Travels  m  India,  p.  193.) 
(London,  1678.) 

Itinerarium  Orientale  R.  P.  F.  Philippi  a  SSma.  Tnnitate  Carmehtae 
Discalceati  ab  ipso  conscriptum,  p.  267.     (Lugduni,  1649.) 


396  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

jection,  the  people  of  Boni,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Dutch, 
revolted  against  the  Macassars,  and  assumed  the  headship 
of  the  tribes  of  Celebes,  in  the  place  of  their  former  masters.1 
The  propagation  of  Islam  certainly  seems  to  have  been 
gradual  and  slow  among  the  Bugis,2  but  when  they  had  once 
adopted  the  new  religion,  it  seems  to  have  stirred  them  up 
to  action,  as  it  did  the  Arabs  (though  this  newly- awakened 
energy  in  either  case  turned  in  rather  different  directions) , — 
and  to  have  made  them  what  they  are  now,  at  once  the 
bravest  men  and  the  most  enterprising  merchants  and 
navigators  of  the  Archipelago.3  In  their  trading  vessels 
they  make  their  way  to  all  parts  of  the  Archipelago,  from 
the  coast  of  New  Guinea  to  Singapore,  and  their  numerous 
settlements,  in  the  establishment  of  which  the  Bugis  have 
particularly  distinguished  themselves,  have  introduced 
Islam  into  many  a  heathen  island  :  e.g.  one  of  their  colonies 
is  to  be  found  in  a  state  that  extends  over  a  considerable 
part  of  the  south  coast  of  Flores,  where,  intermingling  with 
the  native  population,  which  formerly  consisted  partly  of 
Roman  Catholics,  they  have  succeeded  in  converting  all  the 
inhabitants  of  this  state  to  Islam.4 

In  their  native  island  of  Celebes  also  the  Bugis  have 
combined  proselytising  efforts  with  their  commercial  enter- 
prises, and  in  the  little  kingdom  of  Bolaang-Mongondou  in 
the  northern  peninsula5  they  have  succeeded,  in  the  course 
of  the  present  century,  in  winning  over  to  Islam  a  Christian 
population  whose  conversion  dates  from  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  first  Christian  king  of  Bolaang- 
Mongondou  was  Jacobus  Manopo  (1689-1709),  in  whose 
reign  Christianity  spread  rapidly,  through  the  influence  of 

1  Crawfurd,  vol.  ii.  pp.  385-9. 

2  "  No  extraordinary  exertion  seems  for  a  long  time  to  have  been  made 
on  behalf  of  the  new  religion.  An  abhorrence  of  innovation  and  a  most 
pertinacious  and  religious  adherence  to  ancient  custom,  distinguish  the 
people  of  Celebes  beyond  all  the  other  tribes  of  the  Eastern  isles;  and 
these  would,  at  first,  prove  the  most  serious  obstacles  to  the  dissemination 
of  Mahometanism.  It  was  this,  probably,  which  deferred  the  adoption  of 
the  new  religion  for  so  long  a  period,  and  till  it  had  recommended  itself  by 
wearing  the  garb  of  antiquity."     (Crawfurd  (2),  vol.  ii.  p.  387.) 

3  Crawfurd  (1),  p.  75.     De  Hollander,  vol.  ii.  p.  212. 

4  Id.  vol.  ii.  p.  666.     Riedel  (2),  p.  67. 

5  To  the  east  of  Minahassa,  between  long.  1240  45'  and  1230  20',  with  a 
population  that  has  been  variously  estimated  at  35,000  and  50,000.  (De 
Hollander,  vol.  ii.  p.  247.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      397 

the  Dutch  East  India  Company  and  the  preaching  of  the 
Dutch  clergy.1     His  successors  were  all  Christian  until  1844, 
when  the  reigning  Raja,  Jacobus  Manuel  Manopo,  embraced 
Islam.     His  conversion  was  the  crown  of  a  series  of  prosely- 
tising efforts  that  had  been  in  progress  since  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  for  it  was  about  this  time  that  the  zealous 
efforts  of  some  Muhammadan  traders — Bugis  and  others — 
won  over  some  converts  to  Islam  in  one  of  the  coast  towns 
of  the  southern  kingdom,  Mongondou ;  from  this  same  town 
two  trader  missionaries,  Hakim  Bagus  and  Imam  Tuweko 
by  name,  set  out  to  spread  their  faith  throughout  the  rest 
of  this  kingdom.     They  made  a  beginning  with  the  conver- 
sion of  some  slaves  and  native  women  whom  they  married, 
and  these  little  by  little  persuaded  their  friends  and  relatives 
to  embrace  the  new  faith.     From  Mongondou  Islam  spread 
into  the  northern  kingdom  Bolaang;    here,   in   1830,   the 
whole  population  was  either  Christian  or  heathen,  with  the 
exception  of  two  or  three  Muhammadan  settlers;    but  the 
zealous  preachers  of  Islam,  the  Bugis,  and  the  Arabs  who 
assisted  them  in  their  missionary  labours,  soon  achieved  a 
wide-spread  success.     The  Christians,  whose  knowledge  of 
the  doctrines  of  their  religion  was  very  slight  and  whose 
faith  was  weak,  were  ill  prepared  with  the  weapons  of  con- 
troversy to  meet  the  attacks  of  the  rival  creed;    despised 
by  the  Dutch  Government,  neglected  and  well-nigh  aban- 
doned by  the  authorities  of  the  Church,  they  began  to  look 
on  these  foreigners,   some   of  whom  married  and  settled 
among  them,  as  their  friends.     As  the  work  of  conversion 
progressed,  the  visits  of  these  Bugis  and  Arabs,— at  first 
rare,— became  more  frequent,   and  their  influence  in  the 
country  very  greatly  increased,  so  much  so  that  about  1832 
an  Arab  married  a  daughter  of  the  king,  Cornelius  Manopo, 
who  was  himself  a  Christian ;   many  of  the  chiefs,  and  some 
of  the  most  powerful  among  them,  about  the  same  time, 
abandoned  Christianity  and  embraced  Islam.     In  this  way 
Islam  had  gained  a  firm  footing  in  his  kingdom  before  Raja 
Jacobus  Manuel  Manopo  became  a  Muslim  in  1844;    this 
prince  had  made  repeated  applications  to  the  Dutch  authori- 
ties at   Manado   to  appoint  a  successor  to   the  Christian 

1  Wilken  (i),  pp.  42-4. 


398  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

schoolmaster,  Jacobus  Bastiaan, — whose  death  had  been 
a  great  loss  to  the  Christian  community — but  to  no  purpose, 
and  learning  from  the  resident  at  Manado  that  the  Dutch 
Government  was  quite  indifferent  as  to  whether  the  people 
of  his  state  were  Christians  or  Muhammadans,  so  long  as  they 
were  loyal,  openly  declared  himself  a  Musalman  and  tried 
every  means  to  bring  his  subjects  over  to  the  same  faith. 
An  Arab  missionary  took  advantage  of  the  occurrence  of  a 
terrible  earthquake  in  the  following  year,  to  prophecy  the 
destruction  of  Bolaang-Mongondou,  unless  the  people 
speedily  became  converted  to  Islam.  Many  in  their  terror 
hastened  to  follow  this  advice,  and  the  Raja  and  his  nobles 
lent  their  support  to  the  missionaries  and  Arab  merchants, 
whose  methods  of  dealing  with  the  dilatory  were  not  always 
of  the  gentlest.  Nearly  half  the  population,  however,  still 
remains  heathen,  but  the  progress  of  Islam  among  them, 
though  slow,  is  continuous  and  sure.1 

The  neighbouring  island  of  Sambawa  likewise  probably 
received  its  knowledge  of  this  faith  from  Celebes,  through 
the  preaching  of  missionaries  from  Macassar  between  1540 
and  1550.  All  the  more  civilised  inhabitants  are  true 
believers  and  are  said  to  be  stricter  in  the  performance  of 
their  religious  duties  than  any  of  the  neighbouring  Muham- 
madan  peoples.  This  is  largely  due  to  a  revivalist  movement 
set  on  foot  by  a  certain  Haji  'Ali  after  the  disastrous  eruption 
of  Mount  Tambora  in  1815,  the  fearful  suffering  that  ensued 
thereon  being  made  use  of  to  stir  up  the  people  to  a  more 
strict  observance  of  the  precepts  of  their  religion  and  the 
leading  of  a  more  devout  life.2  At  the  present  time  Islam 
still  continues  to  win  over  fresh  converts  in  this  island.3 

The  Sasaks  of  the  neighbouring  island  of  Lombok  also 
owed  their  conversion  to  the  preaching  of  the  Bugis,  who 
form  a  large  colony  here,  having  either  crossed  over  the 
strait  from  Sambawa  or  come  directly  from  Celebes  :  at 
any  rate  the  conversion  appears  to  have  taken  place  in  a 
peaceable  manner.4  The  population  of  Lombok  falls  into 
two    distinct    divisions,    the    Sasaks    and    the     Balinese; 

1  Wilken  (2),  pp.  276-9.       Koloniaal  Verslag  van  1910,  p.  52  ;  191 1,  p.  47. 

2  Zollinger  (2),  pp.  126,  169. 

3  Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen,  xxxii.  p.  177;   xxxiv.  p.  170. 

4  Zollinger  (1),  p.  527. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      399 

the  first  of  these,  consisting  of  the  Muhammadan  Sasaks, 
the  original  inhabitants  of  the  island,  far  outnumbers 
the  second,  but  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  they  came  under  the  rule  of  the  Balinese 
and  soon  found  their  island  overrun  by  swarms  of  the 
Hindu  neighbours.1  The  rule  of  the  Balinese  was  very 
oppressive,  and  they  made  efforts — though  with  little 
success — to  bring  their  Muslim  subjects  over  to  Hinduism; 
the  Sasaks  tried  in  vain  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  their  oppres- 
sors, and  more  than  once  appealed  to  the  Dutch  Government, 
before  the  expedition  of  1894  brought  peace  to  the  island  and 
established  an  orderly  administration  under  Dutch  rule. 
The  new  government  brought  with  it  a  large  number  of 
native  Muhammadan  officials,  who  throw  in  their  influence 
on  the  side  of  their  own  faith,  and  it  is  thus  expected  that 
one  of  the  results  of  the  Dutch  conquest  of  Lombok  will  be 
to  give  a  great  impetus  to  Islam  in  this  island.2 

In  the  Philippine  Islands  we  find  a  struggle  between 
Christianity  and  Islam  for  the  allegiance  of  the  inhabitants, 
somewhat  similar  in  character  to  that  in  Celebes,  but  more 
stern  and  enduring,  entangling  the  Spaniards  and  the 
Muslims  in  a  fierce  and  bloody  conflict,  even  up  to  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  is  uncertain  when  Islam  first 
reached  these  islands.3  The  traditionary  annals  of  Min- 
danao represent  Islam  as  having  been  introduced  from 
Johore,  in  the  Malay  Peninsula,  by  a  certain  Sharif 
Kabungsuwan,  who  settled  with  a  number  of  followers 
in  the  island  and  married  there.  He  is  said  to  have 
refused  to  land  until  the  men  who  came  to  meet  him 
on  his  arrival  promised  to  embrace  Islam,  and  these 
early  records  give  the  impression  that  the  landing  of 
Kabungsuwan  and  the  conversion  of  the  people  of  Mindanao 
at  first  proceeded  quite  peacefully ;   but  after  he  had  estab- 

1  De  Hollander  (in  1882)  gave  the  numbers  as  20,000  Balinese  and  380,000 
Sasaks.     (Vol.  i.  p.  489.) 

2  Encyclopaedie  van  N.-I.  vol.  ii.  pp.  432-4»  524- 

W.   Cool  :  With  the  Dutch  in  the  East.     An  outline  of  the  military 
operations  in  Lombok,  1894.     (London,  1897.) 

3  Captain  Thomas  Forrest,  writing  in  1775,  says  that  Arabs  came  to  the 
island  of  Mindanao  300  years  before  and  that  the  tomb  of  the  first  Arab,  a 
Sharif  from  Mecca,  was  still  shown—"  a  rude  heap  of  coral  rock  stones" 
(pp.  201,  313). 


400  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

lished  his  power,  he  began  to  conquer  the  neighbouring 
chiefs  and  tribes,  and  they  accepted  his  religion  in  submitting 
to  his  authority.1  The  Spaniards  who  discovered  them  in 
1521,  found  the  population  of  the  northern  islands  to  be 
rude  and  simple  pagans,  while  Mindanao  and  the  Sulu 
Islands  were  occupied  by  more  civilised  Muhammadan 
tribes.2  The  latter  up  to  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  successfully  resisted  for  the  most  part  all  the 
efforts  of  the  Christians  towards  conquest  and  conversion, 
so  that  the  Spanish  missionaries  despaired  of  ever  effecting 
their  conversion.3  The  success  of  Islam  as  compared 
with  Christianity  has  been  due  in  a  great  measure  to 
the  different  form  under  which  these  two  faiths  were 
presented  to  the  natives.  The  adoption  of  the  latter 
implied  the  loss  of  all  political  freedom  and  national  inde- 
pendence, and  hence  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  badge  of 
slavery.  The  methods  adopted  by  the  Spaniards  for  the 
propagation  of  their  religion  were  calculated  to  make  it 
unpopular  from  the  beginning;  their  violence  and  intoler- 
ance were  in  strong  contrast  to  the  conciliatory  behaviour  of 
the  Muhammadan  missionaries,  who  learned  the  language  of 
the  people,  adopted  their  customs,  intermarried  with  them, 
and  melting  into  the  mass  of  the  people,  neither  arrogated 
to  themselves  the  exclusive  rights  of  a  privileged  race  nor 
condemned  the  natives  to  the  level  of  a  degraded  caste. 
The  Spaniards,  on  the  other  hand,  were  ignorant  of  the 
language,  habits  and  manners  of  the  natives;  their  in- 
temperance and  above  all  their  avarice  and  rapacity  brought 
their  religion  into  odium;  while  its  propagation  was  in- 
tended to  serve  as  an  instrument  of  their  political  advance- 
ment.4 It  is  not  difficult  therefore  to  understand  the 
opposition  offered  by  the  natives  to  the  introduction  of 
Christianity,  which  indeed  only  became  the  religion  of  the 

x  N.  N.  Saleeby  :  Studies  in  Moro  History,  Law  and  Religion,  pp.  24-5, 
53-5.     (Manila,  1905.) 

2  Relatione  di  Ivan  Gaetan  del  discoprimento  dell'  Isole  Molucche. 
(Ramusio,  torn.  i.  p.  375  E.) 

3  "  Se  muestran  tan  obstinados  a  la  gracia  de  Dios  y  tan  aferrados  a  sus 
creencias,  que  es  casi  moraimente  imposible  su  conversion  al  cristianismo." 
(Cartas  de  los  PP.  de  la  Compafiia  de  Jesus  de  la  Missi6n  de  Filipinas, 
1879,  quoted  by  Montero  y  Vidal,  torn.  i.  p.  21.) 

4  Crawfurd  (2),  vol.  ii.  pp.  274-280. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      401 

people  in  those  parts  in  which  the  inhabitants  were  weak 
enough,  or  the  island  small  enough,  to  enable  the  Spaniards 
to  effect  a  total  subjugation;  the  native  Christians  after 
their  conversion  had  to  be  forced  to  perform  their  religious 
duties  through  fear  of  punishment,  and  were  treated  exactly 
like  school-children.1  Up  to  the  time  of  the  American  occu- 
pation of  the  Philippine  Islands  the  independent  Muhamma- 
dan  kingdom  of  Mindanao  was  a  refuge  for  those  who  wished 
to  escape  from  the  hated  Christian  government ;  2  the  island 
of  Sulu,  also,  though  nominally  a  Spanish  possession  since 
1878,  formed  another  centre  of  Muhammadan  opposition  to 
Christianity,  Spanish-knowing  renegades  even  being  found 
here.3 

We  have  no  certain  historical  evidence  as  to  how  long  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Sulu  Islands  had  been  Muhammadan, 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  The  annals  of  Sulu 
give  the  name  of  Sharif  Karlm  al-Makhdum  as  the  first 
missionary  of  Islam  in  these  islands.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  an  Arab  who  went  to  Malacca  about  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century  and  converted  Sultan  Muhammad 
Shah  and  the  people  of  Malacca  to  Islam.  Continuing 
his  journey  eastward,  he  reached  Sulu  about  the  year 
1380  and  settled  in  Bwansa,4  the  old  capital  of  Sulu, 
where  the  people  built  a  mosque  for  him  and  many  of  the 
chiefs  accepted  his  teachings.  He  is  said  to  have  visited 
almost  every  island  of  the  Archipelago  and  to  have  made 
converts  in  many  places ;  his  grave  is  said  to  be  on  the  island 
of  Sibutu.5  The  next  missionary  is  said  to  have  been  Abu 
Bakr,  who  is  also  stated  to  have  been  an  Arab,  and  to  have 
commenced  his  missionary  labours  in  Malacca  and  to  have 

1  "lis  sont  peu  soigneux  de  satisfaire  au  devoir  du  Christianisme  qu'ils 
ont  receu,  et  il  les  y  faut  contraindre  par  la  crainte  du  chastiment,  et 
gouverner  comme  des  enfans  a  l'escole."  Relation  des  Isles  Philippines, 
Faite  par  un  Religieux,  p.  7.     (Thevenot,  vol.  i.) 

2  "  A  Mindanao,  les  Tagal  de  l'Est,  fuyant  le  joug  abhorre  de  leurs 
maitres  catholiques,  se  groupent  chaque  jour  davantage  autour  des  chefs 
des  dynasties  nationales.  Plus  de  360,000  sectateurs  du  coran  y  reconnais- 
sent  un  sultan  independant.  Aux  jesuites  chasses  de  l'ile,  aux  represent- 
ants  du  culte  officiel,  se  substituent  comme  maitres  religieux  et  educateurs 
de  la  population,  les  missionnaires  musulmans  de  la  Chine  et  de  l'Inde  qui 
renovent  ainsi  la  propagande,  commencee  par  les  invasions  arabes.  (A.  le 
Chatelier  (2),  p.  45.)  3  Montero  y  Vidal,  vol.  1.  p.  86. 

4  Situated  three  miles  west  of  Jolo,  the  present  capital. 

0  N.  M.  Saleeby  :   The  History  of  Sulu,  pp.  150.  158-9.     (Manila,  1908.) 

D  D 


402  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

made  his  way  to  Palembang  and  Brunei,  and  reached  Sulu 
about  1450;  he  built  mosques  and  carried  on  a  successful 
propaganda.  The  Muslim  king  of  Bwansa,  Raja  Baginda, 
gave  him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  appointed  him  his 
heir,  and  Abu  Bakr  is  credited  with  having  organised  the 
government  and  legislation  of  Sulu  on  orthodox  Muslim 
lines  as  far  as  local  custom  would  allow.1  Though  so  long 
converted,  the  people  of  Sulu  are  far  from  being  rigid 
Muhammadans,  indeed,  the  influence  of  the  numerous 
Christian  slaves  that  they  carried  off  from  the  Philippines 
in  their  predatory  excursions  used  to  be  so  great  that  it 
was  even  asserted2  that  "  they  would  long  ere  this  have 
become  professed  Christians  but  from  the  prescience  that 
such  a  change,  by  investing  a  predominating  influence  in 
the  priesthood,  would  inevitably  undermine  their  own 
authority,  and  pave  the  way  to  the  transfer  of  their  do- 
minions to  the  Spanish  yoke,  an  occurrence  which  fatal 
experience  has  too  forcibly  instructed  all  the  surrounding 
nations  that  unwarily  embrace  the  Christian  persuasion." 
Further,  the  aggressive  behaviour  of  the  Spanish  priests  who 
established  a  mission  in  Sulu  created  in  the  mind  of  the 
people  a  violent  antipathy  to  the  foreign  religion.3 

Since  the  American  occupation  of  the  Philippines,  the 
influence  of  Islam  has  been  considerably  restricted,  and  is 
now  confined  to  the  island  of  Palawan,  the  south  coast  of 
Mindanao  and  the  archipelago  of  Sulu.4  But  it  is  said  to 
be  seeking  to  extend  its  propaganda  among  the  northern 
islands,  and  to  have  made  a  beginning  of  missionary  activity 
even  in  Manila.  Certain  conditions  are  said  to  favour  its 
success,  especially  the  fact  that  the  Filipinos  are  prejudiced 
against  Christianity  on  account  of  the  abuses  that  led  them 
to  take  up  arms  against  the  Spanish  friars.5 

As  has  been  already  mentioned,  Islam  has  been  most 
favourably  received  by  the  more  civilised  races  of  the 
Malay  Archipelago,  and  has  taken  but  little  root  among  the 
lower  races.  Such  are  the  Papuans  of  New  Guinea,  and  the 
islands  to  the  north-west  of  it,  viz.  Waigyu,  Misool,  Waigama 

1  N.  M.  Saleeby  :  The  History  of  Sulu,  pp.  150,  162-3. 

2  J.  H.  Moor.     (Appendix,  p.  37.)  3  Dalrymple,  p.  549. 

4  R.  du  M.  M.,  vii.  pp.  1 15-16.      (1909.) 

5  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  N.S.,  vol.  xiv.  p.  877.  (New 
York,  1901.) 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      403 

and  Salawatti.  These  islands,  together  with  the  peninsula 
of  Onin,  on  the  north-west  of  New  Guinea,  were  in  the 
sixteenth  century  subject  to  the  Sultan  of  Batjan,1  one  of 
the  kings  of  the  Moluccas.  Through  the  influence  of  the 
Muhammadan  rulers  of  Batjan,  the  Papuan  chiefs  of  these 
islands  adopted  Islam,2  and  though  the  mass  of  the  people 
in  the  interior  have  remained  heathen  up  to  the  present 
day,  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast  are  Muhammadans  largely 
no  doubt  owing  to  the  influence  of  settlers  from  the  Moluccas.3 
In  New  Guinea  itself,  very  few  of  the  Papuans  seem  to  have 
become  Muhammadans.  Islam  was  introduced  into  the  west 
coast  (probably  in  the  peninsula  of  Onin)  by  Muhammadan 
merchants,  who  propagated  their  religion  among  the  inhabit- 
ants, as  early  as  1606. 4  But  it  appears  to  have  made  very 
little  progress  during  the  centuries  that  have  elapsed  since 
then,5  and  the  Papuans  have  shown  as  much  reluctance  to 
become  Muhammadans  as  to  accept  the  teachings  of  the 
Christian  missionaries,  who  have  laboured  among  them 
without  much  success  since  1855.  The  Muhammadans 
of  the  neighbouring  islands  have  been  accused  of  holding 
the  Papuans  in  too  great  contempt  to  make  efforts  to 
spread  Islam  among  them.6     The  name  of  one  missionary, 

1  The  first  prince  of  Batjan  who  became  a  Muhammadan  was  a  certain 
Zayn  al-'Abidin,  who  was  reigning  in  1521  when  the  Portuguese  first  came 
to  the  Moluccas. 

2  Robide  van  der  Aa,  pp.  350,  352-3. 

3  Id.  p.  147  (Misool),  "  De  strandbewoners  zijn  alien  Mahomedanen.  .  . 
De  bergbewoners  zijn  heidenen."  Id.  p.  53  (Salawatti),  "  Een  klein  deel 
der  bevolking  van  het  eiland  belijdt  de  leer  van  Mahamed.  Het  grootste 
deel  bestaat  echter  uit  Papoesche  heidenen,  einige  tot  het  Mahomedaansche 
geloof  zijnovergegangen,  althansdenschijn  daarvanaannemen."  Id.  p.  290 
(Waigyu). 

Some  of  the  Papuans  of  the  island  of  Gebi,  between  Waigyu  and 
I  Halemahera,  have  been  converted  by  the  Muhammadan  settlers  from  the 
j  Moluccas.      (Crawfurd  (1),  p.  143.) 

4  Robide  van  der  Aa,  p.  352. 

5  Captain  Forrest,  however,  in  1775,  tells  us  that  "  Many  of  the  Papuas 
'  turn  Musselmen."     (Voyage  to  New  Guinea,  p.  68.) 

6  Robide  van  der  Aa,  p.  71.      "  De  Papoe  is  te  woest  van  aard,  om 
.behoefte  aan  godsdienst  te  gevoelen.     Evenmin  als  de  Christelijke  leer  tot 
!nog  toe  ingang  bij  hem  heeft  kunnen  vinden,  zou  de  Mahomedaansche 
j  godsdienst  slagen,  wanneer  daartoe  bij  deze  volkstammen  poging  gedaan 
Iwerd.     Voorzoover  mij  is  gebleken  op  vijf  reizen  naar  dit  land,  hebben  noch 
;Tidoreezen,  noch  Cerammers  of  anderen  ooit  ernstige  pogingen  gedaan, 
om  de  leer  van  Mahomed  hier  in  te  voeren.   .  .  .  Slechts  zeer  weinige  hoof- 
den,  zooals  de  Radja  Ampat  van  Waigeoe,  Salawatti,  Misool  en  Waigama. 
mogen  als  belijders  van  die  leer  aangemerkt  worden ;    zij  en  eenigc  hunner 
;bloedverwanten  vervullen  sommige  geloofsvormen,  doordien  zij  meermalen 
te  Tidor  geweest  zijn  en  daar  niet  gaarne  als  gewone  Papoes  beschouwd 


404  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

however,    is     found,    a    certain    Imam    Dikir    (?    Dhikr), 
who    came    from    one    of    the   islands    on    the   south-east 
of  Ceram  about  1856  and  introduced  Islam  into  the  little 
island  of  Adi,  south  of  the  peninsula  of  Onin;  after  ful- 
filling his  mission  he  returned  to  his  own  home,  resisting 
the  importunities  of  the  inhabitants  to  settle  among  them.1 
Muhammadan  traders  from  Ceram  and  Goram  are  reported 
to  have  made  a  number  of  converts  from  among  the  heathen 
during  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century.2     Similar 
efforts  are  being  made  to  convert  the  Papuans  of  the  neigh- 
bouring   Kei   Islands.     In   the   middle   of   the   nineteenth 
century  there  were  said  to  be  hardly  any  Muhammadans  on 
these  islands,   with  the   exception   of  the  descendants   of 
immigrants  from  the  Banda   Islands;    some  time  before, 
missionaries  from  Ceram  had  succeeded  in  making  some 
converts,  but  the  precepts  of  the  Qur'an  were  very  little 
observed,   both   forbidden   meats  and  intoxicating  liquors 
being  indulged  in.     The  women,  however,  were  said  to  be 
stricter  in  their  adherence  to  their  faith  than  the  men,  so 
that  when  their  husbands  wished  to  indulge  in  swine's  flesh, 
they  had  to  do  so  in  secret,  their  wives  not  allowing  it  to  be 
brought  into  the  house.3     But  in  1887  it  was  noted  that 
there  had  been  a  revival  of  religious  life  among  the  Kei 
islanders,   and   the   number   of   Muhammadans   was   daily 
increasing.     Arab  merchants  from  Madura,  Java,  and  Bali 
proved  themselves  zealous  propagandists  of  Islam  and  left 
no  means  untried  to  win  converts,  sometimes  enforcing  their 
arguments  by  threats  and  violence,  and  at  other  times  by 
bribes  :  as  a  rule  new  converts  were  said  to  get  200  florins' 
worth  of  presents,  while  chiefs  received  as  much  as  a  thousand 
florins.4     At  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  about  8000 
of  the  Kei  islanders  were  said  to  be  Muhammadan  out  of  a 
total  population  of  23, 000. 5 

The  above  sketch  of  the  spread  of  Islam  from  west  to  east 
through  the  Malay  Archipelago  comprises  but  a  small  part 

worden.  Onder  de  eigenlijke  bevolking  is  nooit  gepoogd,  den  Islam 
intevoeren,  misschien  wel  uit  eerbied  voor  dien  godsdienst,  die  te  verheven 
is  voor  de  Papoes."  x  Robide  van  der  Aa,  p.  319. 

2  Koloniaal  Verslag  van  1906,  p.  70;    1911,  p.  52. 

3  The  Journal  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  vii. pp. 64, 71.  (Singapore,  1853.) 

4  G.  W.  W.  C.  Baron  von  Hoevell,  p.  120.     Krieger,  p.  436. 

5  Encyclopaedie  van  N.-I.,  vol.  ii.  p.  210. 


ISLAM   IN   THE   MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      405 

of  the  history  of  the  missionary  work  of  Islam  in  these 
islands.  Many  of  the  facts  of  this  history  are  wholly  un- 
recorded, and  what  can  be  gleaned  from  native  chronicles 
and  the  works  of  European  travellers,  officials  and  mission- 
aries is  necessarily  fragmentary  and  incomplete.  But  there 
is  evidence  enough  to  show  the  existence  of  peaceful  mission- 
ary efforts  to  spread  the  faith  of  Islam  during  the  last  six 
hundred  years  :  sometimes  indeed  the  sword  has  been  drawn 
in  support  of  the  cause  of  religion,  but  preaching  and  per- 
suasion rather  than  force  and  violence  have  been  the  main 
characteristics  of  this  missionary  movement.  The  mar- 
vellous success  that  has  been  achieved  has  been  largely  the 
work  of  traders,  who  won  their  way  to  the  hearts  of  the 
natives,  by  learning  their  language,  adopting  their  manners 
and  customs,  and  began  quietly  and  gradually  to  spread 
the  knowledge  of  their  religion  by  first  converting  the  native 
women  they  married  and  the  persons  associated  with  them 
in  their  business  relations.  Instead  of  holding  themselves 
apart  in  proud  isolation,  they  gradually  melted  into  the  mass 
of  the  population,  employing  all  their  superiority  of  intelli- 
gence and  civilisation  for  the  work  of  conversion  and  making 
such  skilful  compromises  in  the  doctrines  and  practices  of 
their  faith  as  were  needed  to  recommend  it  to  the  people 
they  wished  to  attract.1  In  fact,  as  Buckle  said  of  them, 
f  The  Mahometan  missionaries  are  very  judicious."  2 

Beside  the  traders,  there  have  been  numbers  of  what  may 
!  be  called  professional  missionaries — theologians,  preachers, 
;  jurisconsults  and  pilgrims.     The  latter  have,  in  recent  years, 
!  been  especially  active  in  the  work  of  proselytising,  in  stirring 
1  up  a  more  vigorous  and  consistent  religious  life  among  their 
J  fellow-countrymen,    and    in    purging    away    the    lingering 
1  remains  of  heathen  habits  and  beliefs.     The  number  of  those 
who  make  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  from  all  parts  of  the 
1  Archipelago  is  constantly  on  the  increase,  and  there  is  in 
i  consequence  a  proportionate  growth  of  Muhammadan  in- 
fluence and  Muhammadan  thought.     Up  to  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  Dutch  Government  tried  to  put 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  pilgrims  and  passed  an  order  that 

1  Crawfurd  (2),  pp.  275,  307. 

2  Buckle's   Miscellaneous   and    Posthumous    Works,    edited    by    Helen 
Taylor,  vol.  i.  p.  594.     (London,  1872.) 


406  THE   PREACHING   OF    ISLAM 

no  one  should  be  allowed  to  make  the  pilgrimage  to  the  holy 
city  without  a  passport,  for  which  he  had  to  pay  no  florins ; 
and  any  one  who  evaded  this  order  was  on  his  return  com- 
pelled to  pay  a  fine  of  double  that  amount.1  Accordingly 
it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  in  1852  the  number  of  pilgrims 
was  so  low  as  seventy,  but  in  the  same  year  this  order  was 
rescinded,  and  since  then,  there  has  been  a  steady  increase. 

The  average  number  of  pilgrims  during  the  last  decade  of 
the  nineteenth  century  was  7000 — during  the  first  decade 
of  the  twentieth,  7300 ; 2  but  the  numbers  vary  considerably 
from  year  to  year,  the  largest  recorded  number  from  the 
Dutch  Indies  being  14,234  in  1910.3 

Such  an  increase  is  no  doubt  largely  due  to  the  increased 
facilities  of  communication  between  Mecca  and  the  Malay 
Archipelago,  but,  as  a  Christian  missionary  has  observed, 
this  by  no  means  "  diminishes  the  importance  of  the  fact, 
especially  as  the  Hadjis,  whose  numbers  have  grown  so 
rapidly,  have  by  no  means  lost  in  quality  what  they  gained 
in  quantity;  on  the  contrary,  there  are  now  amongst  them 
many  more  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  doctrines  of 
Islam,  and  wholly  imbued  with  Moslem  fanaticism  and 
hatred  against  the  unbelievers,  than  there  formerly  were."  4 
The  reports  of  the  Dutch  Government  and  of  Christian 
missionaries  bear  unanimous  testimony  to  the  influence  and 
the  proselytising  zeal  of  these  pilgrims  who  return  to  their 
homes  as  at  once  reformers  and  missionaries.5  Beside  the 
pilgrims  who  content  themselves  with  merely  visiting  the 
sacred  places  and  performing  the  due  ceremonies,  and  those 
who  make  a  longer  stay  in  order  to  complete  their  theological 
studies,  there  is  a  large  colony  of  Malays  in  Mecca  at  the 
present  time,  who  have  taken  up  their  residence  permanently 
in  the  sacred  city.  These  are  in  constant  communication 
with  their  fellow-countrymen  in  their  native  land,  and  their 
efforts  have  been  largely  effectual  in  purging  Muhammadan- 
ism  in  the  Malay  Archipelago  from  the  contamination  of 

1  Neimann,  pp.  406-7. 

2  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje:  De  hadji-politiek  der  Indische  Regeering,  p.  12. 
(Overdruk  uit  Onze  Eeuw,  1909.) 

3  Id. :  Notes  sur  le  mouvement  du  pelerinage  de  la  Mecque  aux  Indes 
Neerlandaises.     (R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  xv.  pp.  409,  412.) 

4  Report  of  Centenary  Conference  on  Protestant  Missions,  vol.  i.  p.  21. 
Niemann,  p.  407. 

5  Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen,  vols,  xxxii.,  xxxiv.  passim. 


ISLAM   IN   THE  MALAY   ARCHIPELAGO      407 

heathen  customs  and  modes  of  thought  that  have  survived 
from  an  earlier  period.  A  large  number  of  religious  books 
is  also  printed  in  Mecca  in  the  various  languages  spoken 
by  the  Malay  Muhammadans  and  carried  to  all  parts  of  the 
Archipelago.  Indeed  Mecca  has  been  well  said  to  have  more 
influence  on  the  religious  life  of  these  islands  than  on  Turkey, 
India  or  Bukhara.1 

As  might  be  anticipated  from  a  consideration  of  these 
facts,  there  has  been  of  recent  years  a  very  great  awakening 
of  missionary  activity  in  the  Malay  Archipelago,  and  the 
returned  pilgrims,  whether  as  merchants  or  religious  teachers, 
become  preachers  of  Islam  wherever  they  come  in  contact 
with  a  heathen  population.  The  religious  orders  moreover 
have  extended  their  organisation  to  the  Malay  Archipelago,2 
even  the  youngest  of  them — the  Sanusiyyah — finding  ad- 
herents in  the  most  distant  islands,3  one  of  the  signs  of  its 
influence  being  the  adoption  of  the  name  Sanusi  by  many 
Malays,  when  in  Mecca  they  change  their  native  for  Arabic 


names.4 


The  Dutch  Government  has  been  accused  by  Christian 
missionaries  of  favouring  the  spread  of  Islam ;  however  this 
may  have  been,  it  is  certain  that  the  work  of  the  Muslim 
missionaries  is  facilitated  by  the  fact  that  Malay,  which  is 
spoken  by  hardly  any  but  Muhammadans,  has  been  adopted 
as  the  official  language  of  the  Dutch  Government,  except  in 
Java;  and  as  the  Dutch  civil  servants  are  everywhere 
attended  by  a  crowd  of  Muhammadan  subordinate  officials, 
political  agents,  clerks,  interpreters  and  traders,  they  carry 
Islam  with  them  into  every  place  they  visit.  All  persons  that 
have  to  do  business  with  the  Government  are  obliged  to  learn 
the  Malay  language,  and  they  seldom  learn  it  without  at 
the  same  time  becoming  Musalmans.  In  this  way  the  most 
influential  people  embrace  Islam,  and  the  rest  soon  follow 
their  example.5  Thus  Islam  is  at  the  present  time  rapidly 
driving  out  heathenism  from  the  Malay  Archipelago. 

1  Snouck  Hurgronje   (3).  vol.  ii.  pp.  xv.  339-393-     Encyclopaedic  van 

N^e  g°the  Q^nyy'ah,  Naqshbandiyyah  and  Sammaniyyah.     (C.  Snouck 
Hurgronje  (2),  p.  186.)     Id.  (3)  vol.  11.  p.  372,  etc. 
3  J.  G.  F.  Riedel  (i),  pp.  7.  59.  i62- 

*  Snouck  Hurgronje  (3),  vol.  11.  p.  323- 

*  JJauri.  p.  ^13.     Encyclopaedie  van  N.-L,  vol.  11.  p.  524- 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

To  the  modern  Christian  world,  missionary  work  implies 
missionary  societies,  paid  agents,  subscriptions,  reports  and 
journals;   and   missionary   enterprise   without   a   regularly 
constituted  and  continuous  organisation  seems  a  misnomer. 
The  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  the  Christian  Church  has, 
from  the  very  beginning  of  its  history,  made  provision  for 
the  propagation  of  Christian  teaching  among  unbelievers; 
its  missionaries  have  been  in  most  cases,  regularly  ordained 
priests  or  monks  ;  the  monastic  orders  (from  the  Benedictines 
downwards)  and  the  missionary  societies  of  more  modern 
times  have  devoted  themselves  with  special  and  concen- 
trated  attention    to    the    furthering   of    a    department    of 
Christian  work  that,  from  the  first,  has  been  recognised  to 
be  one  of  the  prime  duties  of  the  Church.     But  in  Islam 
the  absence  of  any  kind  of  priesthood  or  any  ecclesiastical 
organisation  whatever  has  caused  the  missionary  energy  of 
the  Muslims  to  exhibit  itself  in  forms  very  different  to  those 
that  appear  in  the  history  of  Christian  missions  :  there  are 
no  missionary  societies,1  no  specially  trained  agents,  very 
little  continuity  of  effort.     The  only  exception  appears  to 
be  found  in  the  religious  orders  of  Islam,  whose  organisation 
resembles  to  some  extent  that  of  the  monastic  orders  of 
Christendom.     But  even  here  the  absence  of  the  priestly 
ideal,  of  any  theory  of  the  separateness  of  the  religious 
teacher  from  the  common  body  of  believers  or  of  the  necessity 
of  a  special  consecration  and  authorisation  for  the  perform- 
ance of  religious  functions,  makes  the  fundamental  difference 
in  the  two  systems  stand  out  as  clearly  as  elsewhere. 

1  Organisations  based  on  the  model  of  Christian  missionary  societies 
do  not  begin  to  make  their  appearance  until  the  twentieth  century;  some, 
account  of  these  is  given  in  Appendix  III. 

408 


MUSLIM   MISSIONARIES  409 

Whatever  disadvantages  may  be  entailed  by  this  want 
of  a  priestly  class,  specially  set  apart  for  the  work  of  pro- 
pagating the  faith,  are  compensated  for  by  the  consequent 
feeling  of  responsibility  resting  on  the  individual  believer. 
There  being  no  intermediary  between  the  Muslim  and  his 
God,  the  responsibility  of  his  personal  salvation  rests  upon 
himself  alone  :  consequently  he  becomes  as  a  rule  much 
more  strict  and  careful  in  the  performance  of  his  religious 
duties,  he  takes  more  trouble  to  learn  the  doctrines  and 
observances  of  his  faith,  and  thus  becoming  deeply  impressed 
with  the  importance  of  them  to  himself,  is  more  likely  to 
become  an  exponent  of  the  missionary  character  of  his 
creed  in  the  presence  of  the  unbeliever.  The  would-be 
proselytiser  has  not  to  refer  his  convert  to  some  authorised 
religious  teacher  of  his  creed  who  may  formally  receive 
the  neophyte  into  the  body  of  the  Church,  nor  need  he 
dread  ecclesiastical  censure  for  committing  the  sin  of 
Korah.  Accordingly,  however  great  an  exaggeration  it 
may  be  to  say,  as  has  been  said  so  often,1  that  every 
Muhammadan  is  a  missionary,  still  it  is  true  that  every 
Muhammadan  may  be  one,  and  few  truly  devout  Muslims, 
living  in  daily  contact  with  unbelievers,  neglect  the  precept 
of  their  Prophet  :  "  Summon  them  to  the  way  of  thy  Lord 
with  wisdom  and  with  kindly  warning."  2  Thus  it  is  that, 
side  by  side  with  the  professional  propagandists,— the 
religious  teachers  who  have  devoted  all  their  time  and 
energies  to  missionary  work,— the  annals  of  the  propagation 
of  the  Muslim  faith  contain  the  record  of  men  and  women 
of  all  ranks  of  society,  from  the  sovereign  3  to  the  peasant, 
and  of  all  trades  and  professions,  who  have  laboured  for 
the  spread  of  their  faith,— the  Muslim  trader,  unlike  his 
Christian  brother,  showing  himself  especially  active  in  such 
work.     In  a  list  of  Indian  missionaries  published  in  the 

1  "A  tout  musulman,  quelque  mondain  qu'il  soit,  le  proselytismc 
semble  etre  en  quelque  sorte  inne."  (Snouck  Hurgronje  Revue de 
l'Histoire  des  Religions,  vol.  lvii.  p.  66.)  "Der  Muslim  ist  von  Natur 
Missionar  .  .  .  Er  treibt  Mission  auf  eigne  Faust  undKosten  (Mun- 
zinger,  p.  411.)  Snouck  Hurgronje  (i),  p.  8;  Luttke  (2),  p.  30,  Julius 
Richter,  p.  152;  Merensky,  p.  154- 

3  Seethe  Interring  letter  addressed  hy  Mawlai  IsmaU  Sharif .of 
Morocco,  in  1698  to  King  James  II,  inviting  him  to  embrace  Islam.  (Revue 
de  l'Histoire  des  Religions,  vol.  xlvn.  p.  174  sqq.) 


410  THE  PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

journal  of  a  religious  and  philanthropic  society  of  Lahore  1 
we  find  the  names  of  schoolmasters,  Government  clerks  in 
the  Canal  and  Opium  Departments,  traders  (including  a 
dealer  in  camel-carts),  an  editor  of  a  newspaper,  a  book- 
binder and  a  workman  in  a  printing  establishment.  These 
men  devote  the  hours  of  leisure  left  them  after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  day's  labour,  to  the  preaching  of  their  religion 
in  the  streets  and  bazaars  of  Indian  cities,  seeking  to  win 
converts  both  from  among  Christians  and  Hindus,  whose 
religious  beliefs  they  controvert  and  attack. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  propagation  of  Islam  has 
not  been  the  work  of  men  only,  but  that  Muslim  women  have 
also  taken  their  part  in  this  pious  task.  Several  of  the 
Mongol  princes  owed  their  conversion  to  the  influence  of 
a  Muslim  wife,  and  the  same  was  probably  the  case  with 
many  of  the  pagan  Turks  when  they  had  carried  their  raids 
into  Muhammadan  countries.  The  Sanusiyyah  missionaries 
who  came  to  work  among  the  Tubu,  to  the  north  of  Lake 
Chad,  opened  schools  for  girls,  and  took  advantage  of 
the  powerful  influence  exercised  by  the  women  among 
these  tribes  (as  among  their  neighbours,  the  Berbers),  in 
their  efforts  to  win  them  over  to  Islam.2  In  German 
East  Africa,  the  pagan  natives  who  leave  their  homes  for 
six  months  or  more,  to  work  on  the  railways  or  plantations, 
are  converted  by  the  Muhammadan  women  with  whom  they 
contract  temporary  alliances;  these  women  refuse  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  an  uncircumcised  kafir,  and  to  escape 
the  disgrace  attaching  to  such  an  appellation,  their  husbands 
become  circumcised  and  thus  receive  an  entry  into  Muslim 
society.3  The  progress  of  Islam  in  Abyssinia  during  the  first 
half  of  the  last  century  has  been  said  to  be  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  efforts  of  Muhammadan  women,  especially  the 
wives  of  Christian  princes,  who  had  to  pretend  a  conversion 
to  Christianity  on  the  occasion  of  their  marriage,  but  brought 
up  their  children  in  the  tenets  of  Islam  and  worked  in  every 
possible  way  for  the  advancement  of  that  faith.4  On 
the  western  frontier   of  Abyssinia,  there  is  a  pagan  tribe 

1  Anjuman  Himayat-i-Islam  ka  mahwarl  risalah,  pp.    5-13-     (Lahore 
October  1889.)'  2  Duveyrier,  p.  17. 

3  Klamroth,  p.  12,  4  Massaja,  vol.  xi.  pp.  124-5. 


MUSLIM   MISSIONARIES  411 

called  the  Boruns ;  some  of  these  men  who  had  enlisted 
in  a  negro  regiment,  under  the  Anglo-Egyptian  government 
of  the  Sudan,  were  converted  to  Islam  by  the  wives  of  the 
black  soldiers  while  the  battalion  was  returning  to  Khartum.1 
The  Tatar  women  of  Kazan  are  said  to  be  especially 
zealous  as  propagandists  of  Islam.2  The  professed  devotee, 
because  she  happens  to  be  a  woman,  is  not  thereby  debarred 
from  taking  her  place  with  the  male  saint  in  the  company 
of  the  preachers  of  the  faith.  The  legend  of  the  holy 
women,  descended  from  'All,  who  are  said  to  have  flown 
through  the  air  from  Karbala  to  Lahore,  and  there  by  the 
influence  of  their  devout  lives  of  prayer  and  fasting  to  have 
won  the  first  converts  from  Hinduism  to  Islam,3  could 
hardly  have  originated  if  the  influence  of  such  holy  women 
were  a  thing  quite  unknown.  One  of  the  most  venerated 
tombs  in  Cairo  is  that  of  Naflsah,  the  great-granddaughter 
of  Hasan  (the  martyred  son  of  'AH),  whose  theological 
learning  excited  the  admiration  even  of  her  great  contem- 
porary, Imam  al-Shafi%  and  whose  piety  and  austerities 
raised  her  to  the  dignity  of  a  saint  :  it  is  related  of  her  that 
when  she  settled  in  Egypt,  she  happened  to  have  as  her 
neighbours  a  family  of  dhimmis  whose  daughter  was  so 
grievously  afflicted  that  she  could  not  move  her  limbs  but 
had  to  lie  on  her  back  all  day.  The  parents  of  the  poor 
girl  had  to  go  one  day  to  the  market  and  asked  their  pious 
Muslim  neighbour  to  look  after  their  daughter  during 
their  absence.  Naflsah,  filled  with  love  and  pity,  undertook 
this  work  of  mercy ;  and  when  the  parents  of  the  sick  girl 
were  gone,  she  lifted  up  her  soul  in  prayer  to  God  on  behalf 
of  the  helpless  invalid.  Scarcely  was  her  prayer  ended  than 
the  sick  girl  regained  the  use  of  her  limbs  and  was  able  to 
go  to  meet  her  parents  on  their  return.  Filled  with  grati- 
tude, the  whole  family  became  converts  to  the  religion  of 

their  benefactor.4 

Even  the  Muslim  prisoner  will  on  occasion  embrace  the 
opportunity  of  preaching  his  faith  to  his  captors  or  to  his 
fellow-prisoners.     The    first    introduction    of    Islam    into 

1  Artin,  p.  119.  2  R-  du  M.  M.,  ix.  (1909),  p.  252. 

3  Ghulam  Sarwar  :  Khazinat  al-Asflya,  vol.  u.  p.  407-8, 

4  Goldziher,  vol.  ii.  pp.  303-4. 


412  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

Eastern  Europe  was  the  work  of  a  Muslim  jurisconsult  who 
was  taken  prisoner,  probably  in  one  of  the  wars  between 
the  Byzantine  empire  and  its  Muhammadan  neighbours, 
and  was  brought  to  the  country  of  the  Pechenegs  *  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century.  He  set  before  many  of 
them  the  teachings  of  Islam  and  they  embraced  the  faith 
with  sincerity,  so  that  it  began  to  be  spread  among  this 
people.  But  the  other  Pechenegs  who  had  not  accepted 
the  Muslim  religion,  took  umbrage  at  the  conduct  of  their 
fellow-countrymen  and  finally  came  to  blows  with  them. 
The  Muslims,  who  numbered  about  twelve  thousand,  success- 
fully withstood  the  attack  of  the  unbelievers,  though  they 
were  more  than  double  their  number,  and  the  remnant  of  the 
defeated  party  embraced  the  religion  of  the  victors.  Before 
the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  the  whole  nation  had 
become  Muhammadan  and  had  among  them  men  learned 
in  Muslim  theology  and  jurisprudence.2  In  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Jahangir  (1605-1628)  there  was  a  certain 
Sunni  theologian,  named  Shaykh  Ahmad  Mujaddid,  who 
especially  distinguished  himself  by  the  energy  with  which 
he  controverted  the  doctrines  of  the  SrrTahs  :  the  latter, 
being  at  this  time  in  favour  at  court,  succeeded  in  having 
him  imprisoned  on  some  frivolous  charge;  during  the  two 
years  that  he  was  kept  in  prison  he  converted  to  Islam 
several  hundred  idolaters  who  were  his  companions  in  the 
same  prison.3  In  more  recent  times,  an  Indian  mawlavi, 
who  had  been  sentenced  to  transportation  for  life  to  the 
Andaman  Islands  by  the  British  Government,  because  he 
had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  Wahhabi  conspiracy  of 
1864,  converted  many  of  the  convicts  before  his  death. 
In  Central  Africa,  an  Arab  chief  condemned  to  death  by 
the  Belgians,  spent  his  last  hours  in  trying  to  convert  to 
Islam  the  Christian  missionary  who  had  been  sent  to  bring 
him  the  consolations  of  religion.4 

Such  being  the  missionary  zeal  of  the  Muslims,  that  they 

1  The  Pechenegs  at  that  time  occupied  the  country  between  the  lower 
Danube  and  the  Don,  to  which  they  had  migrated  from  the  banks  of  the 
Ural  at  the  end  of  the  ninth  century.      (Karamsin,  vol.  i.  pp.  180-1.) 

2  Abu  'Ubayd  al-Bakri  (died  1094),  pp.  467-8. 

3  Ghulam  Sarwar  :    Khazinat  al-Asfiya,  vol.  i.  p.  613. 

4  D.  Crawford  :   Thinking  Black,  p.  202.     (London,  1913.) 


CAUSES   OF  THEIR   SUCCESS  413 

are  ready  to  speak  in  season  and  out  of  season, — as  Doughty, 
with  fine  insight,  says,  "  Their  talk  is  continually  (without 
hypocrisy)  of  religion,  which  is  of  genial  devout  remembrance 
to  them,"  x — let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  causes  that 
have  contributed  to  their  success. 

Foremost  among  these  is  the  simplicity2  of  the  Muslim 
creed,  There  is  no  god  but  God;  Muhammad  is  the 
Apostle  of  God.  Assent  to  these  two  simple  doctrines  is  all 
that  is  demanded  of  the  convert,  and  the  whole  history  of 
Muslim  dogmatics  fails  to  present  any  attempt  on  the  part 
of  ecclesiastical  assemblies  to  force  on  the  mass  of  believers 
any  symbol  couched  in  more  elaborate  and  complex  terms. 
This  simple  creed  demands  no  great  trial  of  faith,  arouses 
as  a  rule  no  particular  intellectual  difficulties  and  is  within 
the  compass  of  the  meanest  intelligence.  Unencumbered 
with  theological  subtleties,  it  may  be  expounded  by  any, 
even  the  most  unversed  in  theological  expression.  The 
first  half  of  it  enunciates  a  doctrine  that  is  almost  universally 
accepted  by  men  as  a  necessary  postulate,  while  the  second 
half  is  based  on  a  theory  of  man's  relationship  to  God  that 
is  almost  equally  wide-spread,  viz.  that  at  intervals  in  the 
world's  history  God  grants  some  revelation  of  Himself  to 
men  through  the  mouthpiece  of  inspired  prophets.  This, 
the  rationalistic  character  of  the  Muslim  creed,  and  the 
advantage  it  reaps  therefrom  in  its  missionary  efforts,  have 
nowhere  been  more  admirably  brought  out  than  in  the 
following  sentences  of  Professor  Montet  : — 

"  Islam  is  a  religion  that  is  essentially  rationalistic  in  the 
widest  sense  of  this  term  considered  etymologically  and 
historically.  The  definition  of  rationalism  as  a  system  that 
bases  religious  beliefs  on  principles  furnished  by  the  reason, 
applies  to  it  exactly.  It  is  true  that  Muhammad,  who  was 
an  enthusiast  and  possessed,  too,  the  ardour  of  faith  and  the 
fire  of  conviction,  that  precious  quality  he  transmitted  to  so 
many  of  his  disciples,— brought  forward  his  reform  as  a 

1  Doughty,  vol.  ii.  p.  39-  ,  ,.  ..  c- 

2  This  was  emphasised  by  Marracci  in  the  seventeenth  century.  bi 
ethnicus  mysteria  humani  intellects  captum  excedentia,  vel 1  natural! 
condition!  et  imbecillitati  difncillima,  si  non  impossibiha,  cum  Alcoranica 
doctrina  comparaverit,  statim  ab  his  refugiet,  et  ad  ilia  obvns  ulnis 
accurret."    (Alcorani  textus  .   .  .  translatus,  p.  o.     Patavn,  169S.) 


4i4  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

revelation  :  but  this  kind  of  revelation  is  only  one  form  of 
exposition  and  his  religion  has  all  the  marks  of  a  collection  of 
doctrines  founded  on  the  data  of  reason.  To  believers,  the 
Muhammadan  creed  is  summed  up  in  belief  in  the  unity  of 
God  and  in  the  mission  of  His  Prophet,  and  to  ourselves 
who  coldly  analyse  his  doctrines,  to  belief  in  God  and  a 
future  life;  these  two  dogmas,  the  minimum  of  religious 
belief,  statements  that  to  the  religious  man  rest  on  the  firm 
basis  of  reason,  sum  up  the  whole  doctrinal  teaching  of  the 
Qur'an.  The  simplicity  and  the  clearness  of  this  teaching 
are  certainly  among  the  most  obvious  forces  at  work  in  the 
religion  and  the  missionary  activity  of  Islam.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  many  doctrines  and  systems  of  theology  and 
also  many  superstitions,  from  the  worship  of  saints  to  the 
use  of  rosaries  and  amulets,  have  become  grafted  on  to  the 
main  trunk  of  the  Muslim  creed.  But  in  spite  of  the  rich 
development,  in  every  sense  of  the  term,  of  the  teachings 
of  the  Prophet,  the  Qur'an  has  invariably  kept  its  place  as 
the  fundamental  starting-point,  and  the  dogma  of  the  unity 
of  God  has  always  been  proclaimed  therein  with  a  grandeur, 
a  majesty,  an  invariable  purity  and  with  a  note  of  sure 
conviction,  which  it  is  hard  to  find  surpassed  outside  the 
pale  of  Islam.  This  fidelity  to  the  fundamental  dogma  of 
the  religion,  the  elemental  simplicity  of  the  formula  in 
which  it  is  enunciated,  the  proof  that  it  gains  from  the 
fervid  conviction  of  the  missionaries  who  propagate  it,  are 
so  many  causes  to  explain  the  success  of  Muhammadan 
missionary  efforts.  A  creed  so  precise,  so  stripped  of  all 
theological  complexities  and  consequently  so  accessible  to 
the  ordinary  understanding,  might  be  expected  to  possess 
and  does  indeed  possess  a  marvellous  power  of  winning  its 
way  into  the  consciences  of  men."  1 

Bishop  Lefroy  considers  that  the  "  secret  of  the  extra- 
ordinary power  for  conquest  and  advance  which  Islam  has 
in  its  best  ages  evinced  "  is  to  be  found  in  its  recognition  of 
the  Existence  of  God  rather  than  the  Unity  of  God.  "  Not 
so  much  that  God  is  one  as  that  God  IS— that  His  existence 
is  the  ultimate  fact  of  the  universe— that  His  will  is  supreme 

1  Edouard  Montet  :  La  propagande  chretienne  et  ses  adversaires 
musulmans,  pp.  17-18.     (Paris,  1890.) 


CAUSES   OF  THEIR   SUCCESS  415 

— His  sovereignty  absolute — His  power  limitless  .  .  .  the 
conviction  that,  amidst  all  the  chaos  and  confusion  and 
disorders  of  the  world  which  so  fearfully  obscure  it,  there 
is  nevertheless,  an  ultimate  Will,  resistless,  supreme,  and 
that  man  is  called  to  be  a  minister  of  that  Will,  to  promul- 
gate it,  to  compel — if  necessary  by  very  simple  and  elemen- 
tary means  indeed — obedience  to  that  Will — this  it  was 
which  welded  the  Mohammedan  hosts  into  so  invincible 
an  engine  of  conquest,  which  inspired  them  with  a  spirit 
of  military  subordination  and  discipline,  as  well  as  with  a 
contempt  of  death,  such  as  has  probably  never  been  sur- 
passed in  any  system — this  it  is  which,  so  far  as  it  is  still 
in  any  true  sense  operative  amongst  Mohammadans,  gives 
at  once  that  backbone  of  character,  that  firmness  of  deter- 
mination and  strength  of  will,  and  also  that  uncomplaining 
patience  and  submission  in  the  presence  of  the  bitterest 
misfortune,  which  characterise  and  adorn  the  best  adherents 
of  the  creed."  x 

When  the  convert  has  accepted  and  learned  this  simple 
creed,  he  has  then  to  be  instructed  in  the  five  practical 
duties  of  his  religion  :  (1)  recital  of  the  creed,  (2)  observance 
of  the  five  appointed  times  of  prayer,  (3)  payment  of  the 
legal  alms,  (4)  fasting  during  the  month  of  Ramadan, 
and  (5)  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca. 

The  observance  of  this  last  duty  has  often  been  objected 
to  as  a  strange  survival  of  idolatry  in  the  midst  of  the 
monotheism  of  the  Prophet's  teaching,  but  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  to  him  it  connected  itself  with  Abraham,  whose 
religion  it  was  his  mission  to  restore.2  But  above  all — and 
herein  is  its  supreme  importance  in  the  missionary  history 
of  Islam— it  ordains  a  yearly  gathering  of  believers,  of  all 
nations  and  languages,  brought  together  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  to  pray  in  that  sacred  place  towards  which  their 
faces  are  set  in  every  hour  of  private  worship  in  their  distant 
homes.  No  fetch  of  religious  genius  could  have  conceived 
a  better  expedient  for  impressing  on  the  minds  of  the  faithful 
a  sense  of  their  common  life  and  of  their  brotherhood  in  the 
bonds  of  faith.     Here,  in  a  supreme  act  of  common  worship, 

1  Mankind  and  the  Church,  p.  283-4.     (London,  1907O 

2  Our'an,  ii.  118-26. 


416  THE   PREACHING    OF  ISLAM 

the  Negro  of  the  west  coast  of  Africa  meets  the  Chinaman 
from  the  distant  east;  the  cou:  ly  and  polished  Ottoman 
recognises  his  brother  Muslim  in  the  wild  islander  from  the 
farthest  end  of  the  Malayan  Sea.  At  the  same  time  through- 
out the  whole  Muhammadan  world  the  hearts  of  believers 
are  lifted  up  in  sympathy  with  their  more  fortunate  brethren 
gathered  together  in  tl  ;  sacred  city,  as  in  their  own  homes 
they  celebrate  the  fe?  \d  of  'Id  al-Adha  or  (as  it  is  called 
in  Turkey  and  Egypt;  he  feast  of  Bayram.  Their  visit  to 
the  sacred  city  has  n  to  many  Muslims  the  experience 
that  has  stirred  the  ip  to  "  strive  in  the  path  of  God," 
and  in  the  preceding  -es  constant  reference  has  been  made 
to  the  active  part  ta         by  the  hajis  in  missionary  work. 

Besides  the  instit  a  of  the  pilgrimage,  the  payment 
of  the  legal  alms  is  another  duty  that  continually  reminds 
the  Muslim  that  "  the  faithful  are  brothers  "  * — a  religious 
theory  that  is  very  strikingly  realised  in  Muhammadan 
society  and  seldom  fails  to  express  itself  in  acts  of  kindness 
towards  the  new  convert.  Whatever  be  his  race,  colour 
or  antecedents  he  is  received  into  the  brotherhood  of 
believers  and  takes  his  place  as  an  equal  among  equals. 

It  is  not,  however,  true,  as  some  European  writers  have 
maintained,  that  if  an  unbeliever  is  the  slave  of  a  Muslim 
his  conversion  to  Islam  procures  for  him  his  manumission, 
for,  according  to  Muhammadan  law,  the  conversion  of  a 
slave  does  not  affect  the  prior  state  of  bondage;2  and  the 
condition  of  the  Muslim  slave  has  varied  much  according 
to;  he  character  of  his  master.  But  freedom  is  in  many 
ins  jices  the  reward  of  conversion,  and  devout  minds  have 
ev<  recognised  in  enslavement  God's  guidance  to  the  true 
faith,  as  the  negroes  from  the  Upper  Nile  countries,  whom 
Do  ^hty  met  in  Arabia.  "  In  those  Africans  there  is  no 
res.  ttment  that  they  have  been  made  slaves  .  .  .  even 
though  cruel  men-stealers  rent  them  from  their  parentage. 
The  patrons  who  paid  their  price  have  adopted  them  into 
their  households,  the  males  are  circumcised  and — that 
which  enfranchises  their  souls,  even  in  the  long  passion  of 

1  Qur'an,  xlix.  10. 

2  W.  H.  Macnaghten  :  Principles  and  Precedents  of  Moohummudan  Law, 
p.  312.     (Madras,  1882.) 


CONCLUSION  4i7 

home-sickness— God  has  visited  them  in  their  mishap;  they 
can  say  '  it  was  His  grace/  since  they  be  thereby  entered 
into  the  saving  religion.  This,  therefore,  they  think  is  the 
better  country,  where  they  are  the  Lord's  free  men,  a 
land  of  more  civil  life,  the  soil  of  the  two  Sanctuaries, 
the  land  of  Mohammed  : — for  such  they  do  give  God  thanks 
that  their  bodies  were  sometime  sold  into  slavery  !  "  1 

Very  effective  also,  both  in  winning  and  retaining,  is  the 
ordinance  of  the  daily  prayers  five  times  a  day.  Montes- 
quieu 2  has  well  said,  "  Une  religion  ckirgee  de  beaucoup  de 
pratiques  attache  plus  a  elle  qu'une  autre  qui  Test  moins; 
on  tient  beaucoup  aux  choses  don*  on  est  continuelle- 
ment  occupe."  The  religion  of  the  Muslim  is  continually 
present  with  him  and  in  the  daily  prayer  manifests  itself 
in  a  solemn  and  impressive  ritual,  which  cannot  leave 
either  the  worshipper  or  the  spectator  unaffected.  Sa'id 
b.  Hasan,  an  Alexandrian  Jew,  who  embraced  Islam 
in  the  year  1298,  speaks  of  the  sight  of  the  Friday 
prayer  in  a  mosque  as  a  determining  factor  in  his  own 
conversion.  During  a  severe  illness  he  had  had  a  vision 
in  which  a  voice  bade  him  declare  himself  a  Muslim.  "  And 
when  I  entered  the  mosque  "  (he  goes  on)  "  and  saw  the 
Muslims  standing  in  rows  like  angels,  I  heard  a  voice  speaking 
within  me,  *  This  is  the  community  whose  coming  was 
announced  by  the  prophets  (on  whom  be  blessings  and 
peace  !)  ' ;  and  when  the  preacher  came  forth  clad  in  his 
black  robe,  a  deep  feeling  of  awe  fell  upon  me  .  .  .  and  when 
he  closed  his  sermon  with  the  words,  '  Verily  God  enjoin'  th 
justice  and  kindness  and  the  giving  of  gifts  to  kinsfolk,  Phd 
He  forbiddeth  wickedness  and  wrong  and  oppression.  n1e 
warneth  you;  haply  ye  will  be  mindful.'  3  And  when  <*he 
prayer  began,  I  was  mightily  uplifted,  for  the  row<J  of 
the  Muslims  appeared  to  me  like  rows  of  angels,  to  wlflfee 
prostrations  and  genuflections  God  Almighty  was  revealing 
Himself,  and  I  heard  a  voice  within  me  saying,  '  If  God 
spake  twice  unto  the  people  of  Israel  throughout  the  ages, 
verily  He  speaketh  unto  this  community  in  every  time  of 

1  Arabia  Deserta,  vol.  i.  pp.  554_5- 

2  De  l'Esprit  des  Lois,  livre  xxv.  chap.  2. 

3  Qur.,  chap.  xvi.  v.  92. 

E  E 


4i8  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

prayer/  and  I  was  convinced  in  my  mind  that  I  had  been 
created  to  be  a  Muslim."  1 

If  Renan  could  say,  "  Je  ne  suis  jamais  entre  dans  une 
mosquee  sans  une  vive  emotion,  le  dirai-je  ?  sans  un  certain 
regret  de  n'etre  pas  musulman,"  2  it  can  be  readily  understood 
how  the  sight  of  the  Muslim  trader  at  prayer,  his  frequent 
prostrations,  his  absorbed  and  silent  worship  of  the  Unseen, 
would  impress  the  heathen  African,  endued  with  that  strong 
sense  of  the  mysterious  such  as  generally  accompanies  a  low 
stage  of  civilisation.  Curiosity  would  naturally  prompt 
inquiry,  and  the  knowledge  of  Islam  thus  imparted  might 
sometimes  win  over  a  convert  who  might  have  turned  aside 
had  it  been  offered  unsought,  as  a  free  gift.  Of  the  fast 
during  the  month  of  Ramadan,  it  need  only  be  said  that  it 
is  a  piece  of  standing  evidence  against  the  theory  that  Islam 
is  a  religious  system  that  attracts  by  pandering  to  the  self- 
indulgence  of  men.  As  Carlyle  has  said,  "  His  religion  is 
not  an  easy  one  :  with  rigorous  fasts,  lavations,  strict  complex 
formulas,  prayers  five  times  a  day,  and  abstinence  from 
wine,  it  did  not  succeed  by  being  an  easy  religion." 

Bound  up  with  these  and  other  ritual  observances,  but 
not  encumbered  or  obscured  by  them,  the  articles  of  the 
Muslim  creed  are  incessantly  finding  outward  manifestation 
in  the  life  of  the  believer,  and  thus,  becoming  inextricably 
interwoven  with  the  routine  of  his  daily  life,  make  the 
individual  Musalman  an  exponent  and  teacher  of  his  creed 

1  Goldziher,  Sa'Id  b.  Hasan  d'Alexandrie.     (Revue  des  Etudes  Juives, 
tome  xxx.  pp.  17-18.)     (Paris,  1895). 

2  Ernest  Renan:  LTslamisme  et  la  Science,  p.  19.     (Paris,  1883.) 
This  has  been  emphasised   by  many  observers,  but   it   will  be  enough 

here  to  quote  the  words  of  an  eminent  Christian  bishop.  '  No  one  who 
comes  in  contact  for  the  first  time  with  Mohammedans  can  fail  to  be  struck 
by  this  aspect  of  their  faith.  .  .  .  Wherever  one  may  be,  in  open  street,  in 
railway  station,  in  the  field,  it  is  the  most  ordinary  thing  to  see  a  man, 
without  the  slightest  touch  of  Pharisaism  or  parade,  quietly  and  humbly 
leaving  whatever  pursuit  he  may  be  at  the  moment  engaged  in,  in  order 
to  say  his  prayers  at  the  appointed  hour.  On  a  larger  scale,  no  one  who 
has  ever  seen  the  courtyard  of  the  Great  Mosque  at  Delhi  on  the  last 
Friday  in  the  fast-month  (Ramazan)  filled  to  overflowing  with,  perhaps, 
15,000  worshippers,  all  wholly  absorbed  in  prayer,  and  manifesting  the 
profoundest  reverence  and  humility  in  every  gesture,  can  fail  to  be  deeply 
impressed  by  the  sight,  or  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  power  which  underlies 
such  a  system ;  while  the  very  regularity  of  the  daily  call  to  prayer,  as  it 
rings  out  at  earliest  dawn,  before  light  commences,  or  amid  all  the  noise 
and  bustle  of  the  business  hours,  or  again  as  the  evening  closes  in,  is  fraught 
with  the  same  message."  (Dr.  G.  A.  Lefroy:  Mankind  and  the  Church, 
pp.  287-8.     (London,  1907.)) 


CONCLUSION  419 

far  more  than  is  the  case  with  the  adherents  of  most  other 
religions.1  Couched  in  such  short  and  simple  language,  his 
creed  makes  but  little  demand  upon  the  intellect,  and  the 
definiteness,  positiveness,  and  minuteness  of  the  ritual  leave 
the  believer  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  he  has  to  do,  and  these 
duties  performed,  he  has  the  satisfaction  of  feeling  that  he 
has  fulfiled  all  the  precepts  of  the  Law.  In  this  union  of 
rationalism  and  ritualism,  we  may  find,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  secret  of  the  power  that  Islam  has  exercised  over  the 
minds  of  men.  "  If  you  would  win  the  great  masses  give 
them  the  truth  in  rounded  form,  neat  and  clear,  in  visible 
and  tangible  guise."  2 

Many  other  circumstances  might  be  adduced  that  have 
contributed  towards  the  missionary  success  of  Islam — cir- 
cumstances peculiar  to  particular  times  and  countries. 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  advantage  that  Mu- 
hammadan  missionary  work  derives  from  the  fact  of  its 
being  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  traders,  especially  in  Africa 
and  other  uncivilised  countries  where  the  people  are  naturally 
suspicious  of  the  foreigner.  For,  in  the  case  of  the  trader, 
his  well-known  and  harmless  avocation  secures  to  him  an 
immunity  from  any  such  feelings  of  suspicion,  while  his 
knowledge  of  men  and  manners,  his  commercial  savoir-faire, 
gain  for  him  a  ready  reception,  and  remove  that  feeling  of 
constraint  which  might  naturally  arise  in  the  presence  of 
the  stranger.  He  labours  under  no  such  disadvantages  as 
hamper  the  professed  missionary,  who  is  liable  to  be  sus- 
pected of  some  sinister  motive,  not  only  by  people  whose 
range  of  experience  and  mental  horizon  are  limited  and  to 
whom  the  idea  of  any  man  enduring  the  perils  of  a  long 
journey  and  laying  aside  every  mundane  occupation  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  gaining  proselytes,  is  inexplicable,  but 
also  by  more  civilised  men  of  the  world  who  are  very  prone 
to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  paid  missionary  agent. 

The  circumstances  are  very  different  when  Islam  has  not 
to  appear  as  a  suppliant  in  a  foreign  country,  but  stands 
forth  proudly  as  the  religion  of  the  ruling  race.     In  the 

1  "One  may  notice  and  admire  the  kind  of  chivalrous  pride  which  the 


average  Mohammedan  takes  in  his  faith."     (Bishop  Lefroy  :  Mankind  and 
the  Ch 
2  A. 
1882.) 


the  Church,  p.  289.) 

2  A.  Kuenen :  National  Religions  and  Universal  Religions,  p.  35-    (London 


420  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

preceding  pages  it  has  been  shown  that  the  theory  of  the 
Muslim  faith  enjoins  toleration  and  freedom  of  religious  life 
for  all  those  followers  of  other  faiths  who  pay  tribute  in 
return  for  protection,  and  though  the  pages  of  Muhammadan 
history  are  stained  with  the  blood  of  many  cruel  persecu- 
tions, still,  on  the  whole,  unbelievers  have  enjoyed  under 
Muhammadan  rule  a  measure  of  toleration,  the  like  of  which 
is  not  to  be  found  in  Europe  until  quite  modern  times. 
Forcible  conversion  was  forbidden,  in  accordance  with  the 
precepts  of  the  Qur'an  : — "  Let  there  be  no  compulsion  in 
religion  "  (ii.  257).  "  Wilt  thou  compel  men  to  become 
believers  ?  No  soul  can  believe  but  by  the  permission  of 
God  "  (x.  99,  100).  The  very  existence  of  so  many  Christian 
sects  and  communities  in  countries  that  have  been  for 
centuries  under  Muhammadan  rule  is  an  abiding  testimony 
to  the  toleration  they  have  enjoyed,  and  shows  that  the 
persecutions  they  have  from  time  to  time  been  called  upon 
to  endure  at  the  hands  of  bigots  and  fanatics,  have  been 
excited  by  some  special  and  local  circumstances  rather  than 
inspired  by  a  settled  principle  of  intolerance.1 

1  c.  g.  The  persecution,  under  al-Mutawakkil,  by  the  orthodox  reaction 
against  all  forms  of  deviation  from  the  popular  creed  :  in  Persia  and  other 
parts  of  Asia  about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  in  revenge  for  the 
domineering  and  insulting  behaviour  of  the  Christians  in  the  hour  of  their 
advancement  and  power  under  the  early  Mongols.  (Maqrizi  (2),  Tome  i. 
Premiere  Partie,  pp.  98,  106.)  Assemani  (torn.  iii.  pars.  ii.  p.c),  speaking 
of  the  causes  that  have  excited  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  under 
Muhammadan  rule,  says  : — "  Non  raro  persecutionis  procellam  excitarunt 
mutuae  Christianorum  ipsorum  simultates,  sacerdotum  licentia,  praesulum 
fastus,  tyrannica  magnatum  potestas,  et  medicorum  praesertim  scriba- 
rumque  de  supremo  in  gentem  suam  imperio  altercationes."  During  the 
crusades  the  Christians  of  the  East  frequently  fell  under  the  suspicion  of 
favouring  the  invasions  of  their  co-religionists  from  the  West,  and  in  modern 
Turkey  the  movement  for  Greek  Independence  and  the  religious  sympathies 
it  excited  in  Christian  Europe  contributed  to  make  the  lot  of  the  subject 
Christian  races  harder  than  it  would  have  been,  had  they  not  been  suspected 
of  disloyalty  and  disaffection  towards  their  Muhammadan  ruler.  De 
Gobineau  has  expressed  himself  very  strongly  on  this  question  of  the 
toleration  of  Islam  :  "  Si  Ton  separe  la  doctrine  religieuse  de  la  necessite 
politique  qui  souvent  a  parle  et  agi  en  son  nom,  il  n'est  pas  de  religion 
plus  tolerante,  on  pourrait  presque  dire  plus  indifferente  sur  la  foi  des 
hommes  que  ITslam.  ,  Cette  disposition  organique  est  si  forte  qu'en  dehors 
des  cas  ou  la  raison  d'Etat  mise  en  jeu  a  porte  les  gouvernements  musulmans 
a  se  faire  arme  de  tout  pour  tendre  a  l'unite  de  foi,  la  tolerance  la  plus 
complete  a  ete  la  regie  fournie  par  le  dogme.  .  .  .  Qu'on  ne  s'arrete  pas 
aux  violences,  aux  cruautes  commises  dans  une  occasion  ou  dans  une  autre. 
Si  on  y  regarde  de  pres,  on  ne  tardera  pas  a  y  decouvrir  des  causes  toutes 
politiques  ou  toutes  de  passion  humaine  et  de  temperament  chez  le  souverain 
ou  dans  les  populations.  Le  fait  religieux  n'y  est  invoque  que  comme 
pretexte  et,  en  realite,  il  reste  en  dehors."     (A.  de  Gobineau  (1),  pp.  24-5.) 


CONCLUSION  421 

At  such  times  of  persecution,  the  pressure  of  circumstances 
has  driven  many  unbelievers  to  become — outwardly  at  least 
— Muhammadans,  and  many  instances  might  be  given  of 
individuals  who,  on  particular  occasions,  have  been  harassed 
into  submission  to  the  religion  of  the  Qur'an.  But  such 
oppression  is  wholly  without  the  sanction  of  Muhammadan 
law,  either  religious  or  civil.  The  passages  in  the  Qur'an 
that  forbid  forced  conversion  and  enjoin  preaching  as  the 
sole  legitimate  method  of  spreading  the  faith  have  already 
been  quoted  above  (Introduction,  pp.  5-6),  and  the  same 
doctrine  is  upheld  by  the  decisions  of  the  Muhammadan 
doctors.  When  Moses  Maimonides,  who  under  the  fanatical 
rule  of  the  Almohads  had  feigned  conversion  to  Islam,  fled 
to  Egypt  and  there  openly  declared  himself  to  be  a  Jew,  a 
Muslim  jurisconsult  from  Spain  denounced  him  for  his 
apostasy  and  demanded  that  the  extreme  penalty  of  the 
law  should  be  inflicted  on  him  for  this  offence ;  but  the  case 
was  quashed  by  al-Qadi  al-Fadil,  'Abd  al-Rahim  b.  'All,1 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  Muslim  judges,  and  the  prime 
minister  of  the  great  Saladin,  who  authoritatively  declared 
that  a  man  who  had  been  converted  to  Islam  by  force  could 
not  be  rightly  considered  to  be  a  Muslim.2  In  the  same 
spirit,  when  Ghazan  (1295-1304)  discovered  that  the  Buddhist 
monks  who  had  become  Muhammadans  at  the  beginning  of 
his  reign  (when  their  temples  had  been  destroyed)  only 
made  a  pretence  of  being  converted,  he  granted  permission 
to  all  those  who  so  wished  to  return  to  Tibet,  where  among 
their  Buddhist  fellow-countrymen  they  would  be  free  once 
more  to  follow  their  own  faith.3  Ta vernier  tells  us  a  similar 
story  of  some  Jews  of  Ispahan  who  were  so  grievously 
persecuted  by  the  governor  "  that  either  by  force  or  cunning 
he  caused  them  to  turn  Mahometans;  but  the  king  (Shah 
'Abbas  II)  (1642-1667),  understanding  that  only  power  and 
fear  had  constrained  them  to  turn,  suffer'd  them  to  resume 
their  own  religion  and  to  live  in  quiet."  4  A  story  of  a  much 
earlier  traveller5  in  Persia,  in  1478,  shows  how  even  in  those 
turbulent  times  a  Muhammadan  governor  set  himself  to 

1  For  a  biography  of  him,  see  Ibn  Khallikan,  vol.  ii.  pp.  IH-I5- 

a  Barhebraeus  (2),  pp.  417-18. 

3  C.  d'Ohsson,  vol.  iv.  p.  281.  4  Tavernier  (i),  p.  160. 

5  Viaggio  di  Iosafa  Barbcro  nella  Persia.     (Ramusio,  vol.  11.  p.  m.J 


422  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

severely  crush  an  outburst  of  fanaticism  of  the  same  char- 
acter. A  rich  Armenian  merchant  of  the  city  of  Tabriz  was 
sitting  in  his  shop  one  day  when  a  Haji,1  with  a  reputation 
for  sanctity,  coming  up  to  him  importuned  him  to  become 
a  Musalman  and  abandon  his  Christian  faith;  when  the 
merchant  expressed  his  intention  of  remaining  steadfast 
in  his  religion  and  offered  the  fellow  alms  with  the  hope  of 
getting  rid  of  him,  he  replied  that  what  he  wanted  was  not 
his  alms  but  his  conversion;  and  at  length,  enraged  at  the 
persistent  refusal  of  the  merchant,  suddenly  snatched  a 
sword  out  of  the  hand  of  a  bystander  and  struck  the  mer- 
chant a  mortal  blow  on  the  head  and  then  ran  away.  When 
the  Governor  of  the  city  heard  the  news,  he  was  very  angry 
and  ordered  the  murderer  to  be  pursued  and  captured ;  the 
culprit  having  been  brought  into  his  presence,  the  governor 
stabbed  him  to  death  with  his  own  hand  and  ordered 
his  body  to  be  cast  forth  to  be  devoured  by  dogs,  saying  : 
"  What !  is  this  the  way  in  which  the  religion  of  Muhammad 
spreads  ?  "  At  nightfall,  the  common  people  took  up  the 
body  and  buried  it,  whereupon  the  Governor,  enraged  at  this 
contempt  of  his  order,  gave  up  the  place  for  three  or  four 
hours  to  be  sacked  by  his  soldiers  and  afterwards  imposed 
a  fine  as  a  further  penalty;  also  he  called  the  son  of  the 
merchant  to  him  and  comforted  him  and  caressed  him  with 
good  and  kindly  words.  Even  the  mad  al-Hakim  (996- 
1020),  whose  persecutions  caused  many  Jews  and  Christians 
to  abandon  their  own  faith  and  become  Musalmans,  after- 
wards allowed  these  unwilling  converts  to  return  again  to 
their  own  religion  and  rebuild  their  ruined  places  of  worship.2 
Neglected  as  the  Eastern  Christians  have  been  by  their 
Christian  brethren  in  the  West,  unarmed  for  the  most  part 
and  utterly  defenceless,  it  would  have  been  easy  for  any 
of  the  powerful  rulers  of  Islam  to  have  utterly  rooted  out 

1  If  indeed  by  Azi  is  meant  Haji. 

2  Makin,  p.  260.  Similarly,  about  a  century  before,  al-Muqtadir  (a.d. 
908-932)  gave  orders  for  the  rebuilding  of  some  churches  at  Ramlah  in 
Palestine  which  had  been  destroyed  by  Muhammadans  during  a  riot,  the 
cause  of  which  is  not  recorded.  (Eutychius,  ii.  p.  82.)  Abu  Salih  makes 
mention  of  the  rebuilding  of  a  great  many  churches  and  monasteries  in  Egypt 
which  had  either  been  destroyed  in  time  of  war  (e.  g.  during  the  invasion 
of  the  Ghuzz  and  the  Kurds  in  1164)  (pp.  91,  96,  112,  120),  been  wrecked 
by  fanatics  (pp.  85-6,  182,  and  Maqrizi  quoted  in  the  Appendix  pp.  327-8), 
or  fallen  into  decay  (pp.*5,  87,  103-4). 


CONCLUSION  423 

their  Christian  subjects  or  banished  them  from  their  domin- 
ions, as  the  Spaniards  did  the  Moors,  or  the  English  the 
Jews  for  nearly  four  centuries.  It  would  have  been  perfectly 
possible  for  Salim  I  (in  1514)  or  Ibrahim  (in  1646)  to  have 
put  into  execution  the  barbarous  notion  they  conceived  of 
exterminating  their  Christian  subjects,  just  as  the  former 
had  massacred  40,000  Shf  ahs  with  the  aim  of  establishing 
uniformity  of  religious  belief  among  his  Muhammadan 
subjects.  The  muftis  who  turned  the  minds  of  their  masters 
from  such  a  cruel  purpose,  did  so  as  the  exponents  of  Muslim 
law  and  Muslim  tolerance.1 

Still,  though  the  principle  that  found  so  much  favour  in 
Germany  in  the  seventeenth  century2 — Cuius  regio  eius 
religio, — was  never  adopted  by  any  Muhammadan  potentate, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  fact  of  Islam  being  the  state  religion 
could  not  fail  to  have  had  some  influence  in  increasing  the 
number  of  its  adherents.  Persons  on  whom  their  religious 
faith  sat  lightly  would  be  readily  influenced  by  considerations 
of  worldly  advantage,  and  ambition  and  self-interest  would 
take  the  place  of  more  laudable  motives  for  conversion. 
St.  Augustine  made  a  similar  complaint  in  the  fifth  century, 
that  many  entered  the  Christian  Church  merely  because 
they  hoped  to  gain  some  temporal  advantage  thereby  : 
"  Quam  multi  non  quaerunt  Iesum,  nisi  ut  illis  faciat  bene 
secundum  tempus  !  Alius  negotium  habet,  quaerit  inter- 
cessionem  clericorum ;  alius  premitur  a  potentiore,  fugit  ad 
ecclesiam ;  alius  pro  se  vult  interveniri  apud  eum  apud  quern 
parum  valet  :   ille  sic,   ille  sic ;   impletur  quotidie  talibus 

ecclesia."  3 

Moreover,  to  the  barbarous  and  uncivilised  tribes  that  saw 
the  glory  and  majesty  of  the  empire  of  the  Arabs  in  the 
heyday  of  its  power,  Islam  must  have  appeared  as  imposing 
and  have  exercised  as  powerful  a  fascination  as  the  Christian 
faith  when  presented  to  the  Barbarians  of  Northern  Europe, 
when  "  They  found  Christianity  in  the  Empire— Christianity 
refined  and  complex,  imperious  and  pompous— Christianity 

1  A.  de  la  Jonquiere,  pp.  203,  213,  312.  .. 

2  E.  Charveriat  :  Histoire  de  la  Guerre  de  Trente  Ans,  tome  11.  pp.  615, 

625.     (Paris,  1878.) 

3  In  Ioannis  Evangelium  Tractatus,  xxv.  $  io, 


424  THE   PREACHING   OF   ISLAM 

enthroned  by  the  side  of  kings,  and  sometimes  paramount 
above  them."  x 

Added  to  this  must  often  have  been  the  slow,  persistent 
influence  of  daily  contact  with  Muslim  life  and  thought, 
such  as  led  even  a  Nestorian  writer  of  the  twelfth  century 
to  add  words  of  blessing  to  the  mention  of  the  name  of  the 
Prophet  and  the  early  caliphs,2  and  to  pray  for  the  mercy  of 
God  on  the  caliph  'Umar  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz.3  In  modern 
times  Christian  missionaries  complain  that  the  system  of 
public  instruction  in  Egypt  under  the  British  occupation, 
according  to  which  "  Christian  boys  are  often  compelled  to 
sit  and  listen  to  the  Koran  and  Din  (religious  teaching)  being 
taught  to  their  Moslem  companions  when  there  is  no  room 
where  they  can  be  separated,"  4  tends  to  give  the  Muhamma- 
dans  a  preponderating  influence  over  their  Christian  fellow- 
students.  One  of  the  most  active  of  the  followers  of  the 
late  Mufti  Muhammad  'Abduh  was  originally  a  Coptic 
medical  student,  who  had  been  won  over  to  Islam  through 
the  influence  of  the  religious  instruction  he  had  heard  given 
in  school  hours.5 

But  the  recital  of  such  motives  as  little  accounts  for  all 
cases  of  conversion  in  the  one  religion  as  in  the  other,  and 
they  should  not  make  us  lose  sight  of  other  factors  in  the 
missionary  life  of  Islam,  whose  influence  has  been  of  a  more 
distinctly  religious  character.  Foremost  among  these  is 
the  influence  of  the  devout  lives  of  the  followers  of  Islam. 
Strange  as  it  may  appear  to  a  generation  accustomed  to 
look  upon  Islam  as  a  cloak  for  all  kinds  of  vice,  it  is  never- 
theless true  that  in  earlier  times  many  Christians  who  have 
come  into  contact  with  a  living  Muslim  society  have  been 
profoundly  impressed  by  the  virtues  exhibited  therein ;  if 
these  could  so  strike  the  traveller  and  the  stranger,  they 
would  no  doubt  have  some  influence  of  attraction  on  the 

1  C.  Merivale  :  The  Conversion  of  the  Northern  Nations,  p.  102.  (London, 
1866.) 

2  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  62  (11.  4,  6,  13).  The  learned  Maronite,  Yusuf 
Sim'an  al-Sim'ani,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  thus  expressed  his  horror  at 
such  a  concession  to  Muslim  sentiment:  "  Mahometi  eiusque  sectariorum 
laudes  persequitur,  et  quod  sine  horrore  dici  nequit,  illius  pseudo- 
prophetae  nomen  es  adiuncto  praeconio  memorat,  quo  Mahometani 
solent,  nimirum^NQ \   aJlft-"     (Assemani,  torn,  iii,  pars.  i.  p.  585.) 

3  Marl  b.  Sulayman,  p.  65  (1.  16). 

*  Methods  of  Mission  Work  among  Moslems,  p.  62.  b  Id.  pp.  61-4. 


CONCLUSION  425 

unbeliever  who  came  in  daily  contact  with  them.  Ricoldus 
de  Monte  Crucis,  a  Dominican  missionary  who  visited  the 
East  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  thus  breaks  out 
in  praise  of  the  Muslims  among  whom  he  had  laboured  : 
"  Obstupuimus,  quomodo  in  lege  tante  perfidie  poterant 
opera  tante  perfectionis  inveniri.  Referemus  igitur  hie 
breviter  opera  perfectionis  Sarracenorum.  .  .  .  Quis  enim 
non  obstupescat,  si  diligenter  consideret,  quanta  in  ipsis 
Sarracenis  sollicitudo  ad  studium,  devocio  in  oratione, 
misericordia  ad  pauperes,  reverencia  ad  nomen  Dei  et 
prophetas  et  loca  sancta,  gra vitas  in  moribus,  affabilitas 
ad  extraneos,  concordia  et  amor  ad  suos  ?  ' '  1  William 
Petit  of  Newburgh  in  similar  manner,  towards  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century,  praised  the  sobriety  of  the  Saracens 
as  the  outcome  of  the  teaching  of  their  Prophet  and  as 
inspiring  them  with  a  sense  of  moral  superiority  over  the 
Christians  :  "  Gulosos  vero  atque  ebriosos,  orbi  terrarum 
graves  abominatus,  sobrietatem  docuit,  ciborum  delicias 
sugillavit,  vini  usum,  praeterquam  paucis  certisque  diebus 
solemnibus,  interdixit  [Macometus].  Inde  est,  quod  cum 
Sarraceni  in  fluxu  libidinum  de  sui,  ut  dictum  est,  seduc- 
toris  indulgentia  probentur  esse  spurcissimi;  nostris,  proh 
dolor  !  in  frugalitate  superiores  esse  videntur,  nobisque, 
proh  pudor  !  comessationum  et  ebrietatum  sordes  impro- 
perant.  Denique  malleus  Christiani  nominis  Saladinus 
ante  annos  aliquot,  cum  nostrorum  mores  explorans,  audisset 
quod  pluribus  in  prandio  ferculis  uterentur,  dixisse  fertur, 
'  tales  Terra  Sancta  indignos  esse.'  Unde  constat,  quod 
luxus  nostrorum  conspectus  Agarenos,  de  frugalitate  glon- 
antes,  contra  nos  incitet  animetque  tanquam  dicentes ; 
'  Deus  dereliquit  crapulatos  istos,  persequamur  et  compre- 
hendamus,  quia  non  est  qui  eripiat.'   '  2 

The  literature  of  the  Crusades  is  rich  in  such  appreciations 
of  Muslim  virtues,  while  the  Ottoman  Turks  in  the  early  days 
of  their  rule  in  Europe  received  many  a  tribute  of  praise  from 
Christian  lips,  as  has  already  been  shown  in  a  former  chapter. 

At  the  present  day  there  are  two  chief  factors  (beyond 
such  of  the  above-mentioned  as  still  hold  good)  that  make  for 

1  Laurent,  p.  131.  .  ,        ,        ,    tT«,„n 

*  Historia  Rerum  Anglicarum  Willelmi  Parvi  de  Newburgh,  ed.  Hans 
Claude  Hamilton,  vol.  ii.  p.  158.     (London,  1856.) 


426  THE   PREACHING   OF  ISLAM 

missionary  activity  in  the  Muslim  world.  The  first  of  these 
is  the  revival  of  religious  life  which  dates  from  the  WahhabI 
reformation  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  though  this 
new  departure  has  long  lost  all  political  significance  outside 
the  confines  of  Najd,  as  a  religious  revival  its  influence  is  felt 
throughout  Africa,  India  and  the  Malay  Archipelago  even 
to  the  present  day,  and  has  given  birth  to  numerous  move- 
ments which  take  rank  among  the  most  powerful  influences 
in  the  Islamic  world.  In  the  preceding  pages  it  has  already 
been  shown  how  closely  connected  many  of  the  modern 
Muslim  missions  are  with  this  wide-spread  revival :  the 
fervid  zeal  it  has  stirred  up,  the  new  life  it  has  infused  into 
existing  religious  institutions,  the  impetus  it  has  given  to 
theological  study  and  to  the  organisation  of  devotional 
exercises,  have  all  served  to  awake  and  keep  alive  the  innate 
proselytising  spirit  of  Islam. 

Side  by  side  with  this  reform  movement,  is  another  of  an 
entirely  different  character — for,  to  mention  one  point  of 
difference  only,  while  the  former  is  strongly  opposed  to 
European  civilisation,  the  latter  is  rather  in  sympathy  with 
modern  thought  and  offers  a  presentment  of  Islam  in  accord- 
ance therewith, — viz.  the  Pan-Islamic  movement,  which 
seeks  to  bind  all  the  nations  of  the  Muslim  world  in  a  common 
bond  of  sympathy.  Though  in  no  way  so  significant  as  the 
other,  still  this  trend  of  thought  gives  a  powerful  stimulus 
to  missionary  labours ;  the  effort  to  realise  in  actual  life  the 
Muslim  ideal  of  the  brotherhood  of  all  believers  reacts  on 
collateral  ideals  of  the  faith,  and  the  sense  of  a  vast  unity 
and  of  a  common  life  running  through  the  nations  inspirits 
the  hearts  of  the  faithful  and  makes  them  bold  to  speak  in 
the  presence  of  the  unbelievers. 

What  further  influence  these  two  movements  will  have  on 
the  missionary  life  of  Islam,  the  future  only  can  show.  But 
their  very  activity  at  the  present  day  is  a  proof  that  Islam 
is  not  dead.  The  spiritual  energy  of  Islam  is  not,  as  has 
been  so  often  maintained,  commensurate  with  its  political 
power.1     On  the  contrary,  the  loss  of  political  power  and 

1  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  was  giving  expression  to  one  of  the  most 
commonly  received  opinions  regarding  this  faith  when  he  said,  "  It  has 
been  fproved  that  Mahometanism  can  only  thrive  while  it  is  aiming  at 
conquest."     (The  Religions  of  the  World,  p.  28.)      (Cambridge,  1852.) 


CONCLUSION  427 

worldly  prosperity  has  served  to  bring  to  the  front  the  finer 
spiritual  qualities  which  are  the  truest  incentives  to  mission- 
ary work.  Islam  has  learned  the  uses  of  adversity,  and  so 
far  from  a  decline  in  worldly  prosperity  being  a  presage  of 
the  decay  of  this  faith,  it  is  significant  that  those  very 
Muslim  countries  that  have  been  longest  under  Christian 
rule  show  themselves  most  active  in  the  work  of  proselytising. 
The  Indian  and  Malay  Muhammadans  display  a  zeal  and 
enthusiasm  for  the  spread  of  the  faith,  which  one  looks  for 
in  vain  in  Turkey  or  Morocco. 


APPENDIX   I. 

LETTER      OF    AL-HASHIMl    INVITING    AL-KINDI    TO    EMBRACE 

ISLAM. 

The  following  is  the  text  of  al-Hashimi's  letter  inviting 
al-Kindl  to  embrace  Islam  : — "  In  the  name  of  God, 
the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate.  I  have  begun  this  letter 
with  the  salutation  of  peace  and  blessing  after  the 
fashion  of  my  lord  and  the  lord  of  the  prophets, 
Muhammad,  the  Apostle  of  God  (may  the  peace  and  mercy 
of  God  be  upon  him  !).  For  those  trustworthy,  righteous 
and  truthful  persons  who  have  handed  down  to  us  the 
traditions  of  our  Prophet  (peace  be  upon  him  !)  have 
related  this  tradition  concerning  him  that  such  was  his  habit 
and  that  whenever  he  began  to  converse  with  men  he  would 
commence  with  the  salutation  of  peace  and  blessing  and 
made  no  distinction  of  dhimmis  and  illiterate,  between 
Muslims  and  poly t heists,  saying  '  I  am  sent  to  be  kind  and 
considerate  to  all  men  and  not  to  deal  roughly  or  harshly 
with  them,'  and  quoting  the  words  of  God,  '  Verily  God 
is  kind  and  merciful  to  believers.'  Likewise  I  have  ob- 
served that  those  of  our  Khalifahs  that  I  have  met,  followed 
the  footsteps  of  their  Prophet  in  courtesy,  nobility,  gracious- 
ness  and  beneficence,  and  made  no  distinctions  in  this 
matter  and  preferred  none  before  another.  So  I  have 
followed  this  excellent  way  and  have  begun  my  letter  with 
the  salutation  of  peace  and  blessing,  that  I  be  blamed  of 
none  who  sees  my  letter. 

"  I  have  been  guided  therein  by  my  affection  towards  you 
because  my  lord  and  prophet,  Muhammad  (may  the  peace 
and  mercy  of  God  be  upon  him  !)  used  to  say  that  love  of 
kinsmen  is  true  piety  and  religion.  So  I  have  written  this 
to  you  in  obedience  to  the  Apostle  of  God  (may  the  peace 

428 


APPENDIX   I 


429 


and  mercy  of  God  be  upon  him  !),  feeling  bound  to  show 
gratitude  for  the  services  you  have  done  us,  and  because  of 
the  love  and  affection  and  inclination  that  you  show  to- 
wards us,  and  because  of  the  favour  of  my  lord  and  cousin 
the   Commander   of  the   Faithful   (may  God  assist   him  !) 
towards  you  and  his  trust  in  you  and  his  praise  of  you.     So 
in  all  sincerity  desiring  for  you  what  I  desire  for  myself,  my 
family  and  my  parents,  I  will  set  forth  the  religion  that  we 
hold,  and  that  God  has  approved  of  for  us  and  for  all  creatures 
and  for  which  He  has  promised  a  good  reward   in  the  end 
and  safety  from  punishment  when  unto  Him  we  shall  return. 
...  So  I  have  sought  to  gain  for  you  what  I  would  gain 
for  myself ;   and  seeing  your  high  moral  life,  vast  learning, 
nobility  of  character,  your  virtuous  behaviour,  lofty  qualities 
and  your  extensive  influence  over  your  co-religionists,   I 
have  had  compassion  on  you  lest  you  should  continue  in 
your  present  faith.     Therefore  I  have  determined  to  set 
before  you  what  the  favour  of  God  has  revealed  to  us  and  to 
expound  unto  you  our  faith  with  good  and  gentle  speech, 
following  the  commandment  of  God,  '  Dispute  not  with  the 
people  of  the  book  except  in  the  best  way.'     (xxix.  45.)     So 
I  will  discuss  with  you  only  in  words  well-chosen,  good  and 
mild ;  perchance  you  may  be  aroused  and  return  to  the  true 
path  and  incline  unto  the  words  of  the  Most  High  God  which 
He  has  sent  down  to  the  last  of  the  Prophets  and  lord  of  the 
children  of  Adam,  our  Prophet  Muhammad  (the  peace  and 
blessing  of  God  be  upon  him  !).     I  have  not  despaired  of 
success,  but  had  hope  of  it  for  you  from  God  who  showeth 
the  right  path  to  whomsoever  He  willeth,  and  I  have  prayed 
that  He  may  make  me  an  instrument  to  this  end.     God  in 
His  perfect   book  says  '  Verily  the  religion    before  God  is 
Islam  '    (hi.   17),   and    again,   confirming    His  first  saying, 
'  And  whoso  desireth  any  other  religion  than  Islam,  it  shall 
by  no  means  therefore  be  accepted  from  him,  and  in  the  next 
world  he  shall   be  among  the  lost  '  (iii.  79),  and  again  He 
confirms  it  decisively,  when  He  says,  '  O  believers,  fear  God 
as  He  deserveth  to  be  feared ;   and  die  not  without  having 

become  Muslims.'    (iii.  97.) 

"And  you  know— (May  God  deliver  you  from  the  ignorance 
of  unbelief  and  open  your  heart  to  the  light  of  faith  !)— 


43o  APPENDIX   I 

that  I  am  one  over  whom  many  years  have  passed  and  I 
have  sounded  the  depths  of  other  faiths  and  weighed  them 
and  studied  many  of  their  books  especially  your  books." 
[Here  he  enumerates  the  chief  books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  and  explains  how  he  has  studied  the  various 
Christian  sects.]  "  I  have  met  with  many  monks,  famous 
for  their  austerities  and  vast  knowledge,  have  visited  many 
churches  and  monasteries,  and  have  attended  their  prayers. 
...  I  have  observed  their  extraordinary  diligence,  their 
kneeling  and  prostrations  and  touching  the  ground  with  their 
cheeks  and  beating  it  with  their  foreheads  and  humble 
bearing  throughout  their  prayers,  especially  on  Sunday  and 
Friday  nights,  and  on  their  festivals  when  they  keep  watch 
all  night  standing  on  their  feet  praising  and  glorifying  God 
and  confessing  Him,  and  when  they  spend  the  whole  day 
standing  in  prayer,  continually  repeating  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  the  days  of  their  re- 
treats which  they  call  Holy  Week  when  they  stand  barefooted 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  with  much  weeping  and  shedding  of 
tears  continually,  and  wailing  with  strange  cries.  I  have 
seen  also  their  sacrifices,  with  what  cleanliness  they  keep  the 
bread  for  it,  and  the  long  prayers  they  recite  with  great 
humility  when  they  elevate  it  over  the  altar  in  the  well- 
known  church  at  Jerusalem  with  those  cups  full  of  wine, 
and  I  have  observed  also  the  meditations  of  the  monks  in 
their  cells  during  their  six  fasts, — i.  e.  the  four  greater  and 
the  two  less,  etc.  On  all  such  occasions  I  have  been  present 
and  observant  of  the  people.  Also  I  have  visited  their 
Metropolitans  and  Bishops,  renowned  for  their  learning  and 
their  devotion  to  the  Christian  faith  and  extreme  austerity 
in  the  world,  and  have  discussed  with  them  impartially, 
seeking  for  the  truth,  laying  aside  all  contentiousness, 
ostentation  of  learning  and  imperiousness  in  altercation  and 
bitterness  and  pride  of  race.  I  have  given  them  opportunity 
to  maintain  their  arguments  and  speak  out  their  minds  with- 
out interruption  or  browbeating,  as  is  done  by  the  vulgar 
and  illiterate  and  foolish  persons  among  our  co-religionists 
who  have  no  principle  to  work  up  to  or  reasons  on  which  to 
rest,  or  religious  feeling  or  good  manners  to  restrain  them 
from  rudeness ;   their  speech  is  but  browbeating  and  proud 


APPENDIX   I  431 

altercation  and  they  have  no  knowledge  or  arguments  except 
taking  advantage  of  the  rule  of  the  government.  When- 
ever I  have  held  discussions  with  them  and  asked  them  to 
speak  freely  as  their  reason,  their  creed  and  their  conclusion 
prompted,  they  have  spoken  openly  and  without  deception 
of  any  kind,  and  their  inward  feelings  have  been  laid  bare 
to  me  as  plainly  as  their  outward  appearance.  So  I  have 
written  at  such  length  to  you  (may  God  show  you  the  better 
way  !)  after  long  consideration  and  profound  inquiry  and 
investigation,  so  that  none  may  suspect  that  I  am  ignorant 
of  the  things  whereof  I  write  and  that  all  into  whose  hands 
this  letter  may  come,  may  know  that  I  have  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  faith. 

"  So,  now  (may  God  shower  His  blessings  upon  you  !)  with 
this  knowledge  of  your  religion  and  so  long-standing  an 
affection  (for  you),  I  invite  you  to  accept  the  religion  that 
God  has  chosen  for  me  and  I  for  myself,  assuring  you 
entrance  into  Paradise  and  deliverance  from  Hell.  And 
it  is  this, — You  shall  worship  the  one  God,  the  only  God, 
the  Eternal,  He  begetteth  not,  neither  is  He  begotten, 
who  hath  no  consort  and  no  son,  and  there  is  none  like  unto 
Him.  This  is  the  attribute  wherewith  God  has  denominated 
Himself,  for  none  of  His  creatures  could  know  Him  better 
than  He  Himself.  I  have  invited  you  to  the  worship  of  this 
the  One  God,  whose  attribute  is  such,  and  in  this  my  letter 
I  have  added  nothing  to  that  wherewith  He  has  denominated 
Himself  (high  and  exalted  be  His  name  above  what  they 
associate  with  Him  !).  This  is  the  religion  of  your  father 
and  our  father,  Abraham  (may  the  blessings  of  God  rest  upon 
him  !),  for  he  was  a  Hanif  and  Muslim. 

"  Then  I  invite  you  (may  God  have  you  in  His  keeping  !)  to 
bear  witness  and  acknowledge  the  prophetic  mission  of  my 
lord  and  the  lord  of  the  sons  of  Adam,  and  the  chosen  one  of 
the  God  of  all  worlds  and  the  seal  of  the  prophets,  Muhammad 
.  sent  by  God  with  glad  tidings  and  warnings  to  all  man- 
kind. '  He  it  is  who  hath  sent  His  Apostle  with  the  guid- 
ance and  a  religion  of  the  truth,  that  He  may  make  it  victori- 
ous over  every  other  religion,  albeit  they  who  assign  partners 
to  God  be  averse  from  it.'  (ix.  33-)  So  he  invited  all  men 
from  the  East  and  from  the  West,  from  land  and  sea,  from 


432  APPENDIX   I 

mountain  and  from  plain,  with  compassion  and  pity  and 
good  words,  with  kindly  manners  and  gentleness.     Then  all 
these  people  accepted  his  invitation,  bearing  witness  that  he 
is  the  apostle  of  God,  the  Creator  of  the  worlds,  to  those  who 
are  willing  to  give  heed  to  admonition.     All  gave  willing 
assent  when  they  beheld  the  truth  and  faithfulness  of  his 
words,  and  sincerity  of  his  purpose,  and  the  clear  argument 
and  plain  proof  that  he  brought,  namely  the  book  that  was 
sent  down  to  him  from  God,  the  like  of  which  cannot  be 
produced  by  men  or  Jinns.     '  Say  :    Assuredly  if  mankind 
and  the  Jinns  should  conspire  to  produce  the  like  of  this 
Qur'an,  they  could  not  produce  its  like,  though  the  one 
should  help  the  other.'     (xvii.  91.)     And  this   is  sufficient 
proof  of  his  mission.     So  he  invited  men  to  the  worship  of 
the  One  God,  the  only  God,  the  Self-sufficing,  and  they 
entered  into  his  religion  and  accepted  his  authority  without 
being  forced  and  without  unwillingness,  but  rather  humbly 
acknowledging  him  and  soliciting  the  light  of  his  guidance, 
and  in  his  name  becoming  victorious  over  those  who  denied 
his  divine  mission  and  rejected  his  message  and  scornfully 
entreated  him.     So  God  set  them  up  in  the  cities  and  sub- 
jected to  them  the  necks  of  the  nations  of  men,  except  those 
who  hearkened  to  them  and  accepted  their  religion  and  bore 
witness  to  their  faith,  whereby  their  blood,  their  property 
and  their  honour  were  safe  and  they  were  exempt  from 
humbly  paying  jizyah."     [He  then  enumerates  the  various 
ordinances  of  Islam,  such  as  the  five  daily  prayers,  the  fast 
of  Ramadan,  Jihad ;   expounds  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead  and  the  last  judgment,  and  recounts  the 
joys  of  Paradise  and  the  pains  of  Hell.]     "  So  I  have  ad- 
monished you  :    if  you  believe  in  this   faith  and  accept 
whatever  is  read  to  you  from  the  revealed  Word  of  God, 
then  you  will  profit  from  my  admonition  and  my  writing  to 
you.     But  if  you  refuse  and  continue  in  your  unbelief  and 
error  and  contend  against  the  truth,  I  shall  have  my  reward, 
having   fulfilled   the   commandment.     And   the   truth   will 
judge  you."     [He  then  enumerates  various  religious  duties 
and  privileges  of  the  Muslim,  and  concludes.]     "  So  now  in 
this  my  letter  I  have  read  to  you  the  words  of  the  great  and 
high  God,  which  are  the  words  of  the  Truth,  whose  promises 


APPENDIX   I  433 

cannot  fail  and  in  whose  words  there  is  no  deceit.  Then  give 
up  your  unbelief  and  error,  of  which  God  disapproves  and 
which  calls  for  punishment,  and  speak  no  more  of  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  these  words  that  you  yourself  admit 
to  be  so  confusing  :  and  give  up  the  worship  of  the  cross 
which  brings  loss  and  no  profit,  for  I  wish  you  to  turn  away 
from  it,  since  your  learning  and  nobility  of  soul  are  degraded 
thereby.  For  the  great  and  high  God  says  :  '  Verily,  God 
will  not  forgive  the  union  of  other  gods  with  Himself;  but 
other  than  this  will  He  forgive  to  whom  He  pleaseth.  And 
whoso  uniteth  gods  with  God,  hath  devised  a  great  wicked- 
ness.' (iv.  51.)  And  again  :  '  Surely  now  are  they  infidels 
who  say,  "  God  is  the  Messiah,  Son  of  Mary ;  "  for  the  Messiah 
said,  "  O  children  of  Israel  !  worship  God,  my  Lord  and  your 
Lord."  Verily,  those  who  join  other  gods  with  God,  God 
doth  exclude  from  Paradise,  and  their  abode  the  Fire ;  and 
for  the  wicked  no  helpers  !  They  surely  are  infidels  who 
say,  "  God  is  a  third  of  three  :  "  for  there  is  no  god  but  one 
God ;  and  if  they  refrain  not  from  what  they  say,  a  grievous 
chastisement  shall  assuredly  befall  such  of  them  as  believe 
not.  Will  they  not,  therefore,  turn  unto  God,  and  ask  pardon 
of  Him  ?  since  God  is  Forgiving,  Merciful  !  The  Messiah, 
Son  of  Mary,  is  but  an  Apostle ;  other  Apostles  have  flourished 
before  him ;  and  his  mother  was  a  just  person ;  they  both 
ate  food.'  (v.  76-9.)  Then  leave  this  path  of  error  and 
this  long  and  stubborn  clinging  to  your  religion  and  those 
burdensome  and  wearisome  fasts  which  are  a  constant 
trouble  to  you  and  are  of  no  use  or  profit  and  produce 
nothing  but  weariness  of  body  and  torment  of  soul.  Em- 
brace this  faith  and  take  this,  the  right  and  easy  path,  the 
true  faith,  the  ample  law  and  the  way  that  God  has  chosen 
for  His  favoured  ones  and  to  which  He  has  invited  the  people 
of  all  religions,  that  He  may  show  His  kindness  and  favour 
to  them  by  guiding  them  into  the  true  path  by  means  of 
His  guidance,  and  fill  up  the  measure  of  His  goodness  unto 

men. 

' '  So  I  have  advised  you  and  paid  the  debt  of  friendship  and 
sincere  love,  for  I  have  desired  to  take  you  to  myself,  that 
you  and  I  may  be  of  the  same  opinion  and  the  same  faith, 
for  I  have  found  my  Lord  saying  in  his  perfect   Book  : 

FF 


434  APPENDIX   I 

'  Verily  the  unbelievers   among  the  people  of  the  Book  and 
among  the  polytheists,  shall  go  into  the  fire  of  Hell  to  abide 
therein  for  ever.     Of  all  creatures  they  are  the  worst.     But 
they  verily  who  believe  and  do  the  things  that  are  right — 
these  of  all  creatures  are  the  best.     Their  recompense  with 
their  Lord  shall  be  gardens  of  Eden,  'neath  which  the  rivers 
flow,  in  which  they  shall  abide  for  evermore.     God  is  well 
pleased  with  them,  and  they  with  Him.     This,  for  him  who 
feareth  his  Lord.'      (xcviii.  5-8.)      '  Ye  are  the  best  folk 
that  hath  been  raised  up  for  mankind.     Ye  enjoin  what  is 
just,  and  ye  forbid  what  is  evil,  and  ye  believe  in  God  : 
and  if  the  people  of  the  book  had  believed,  it  had  surely  been 
better  for  them.     Believers  there  are  among  them,  but  most 
of  them  are  disobedient.'     (hi.   106.)     So  I  have  had  com- 
passion upon  you  lest  you  might  be  among  the  people  of 
Hell  who  are  the  worst  of  all  creatures,  and  I  have  hoped 
that  by  the  grace  of  God  you  may  become  one  of  the  true 
believers  with  whom  God  is  well  pleased  and  they  with  Him, 
and  they  are  the  best  of  all  creatures,  and  I  have  hoped  that 
you  will  join  yourself  to  that  religion  which  is  the  best  of  the 
religions  raised  up  for  men.     But  if  you  refuse  and  persist 
in   your   obstinacy,    contentiousness   and   ignorance,   your 
infidelity  and  error,  and  if  you  reject  my  words  and  refuse 
the  sincere  advice  I  have  offered  you  (without  looking  for 
any  thanks   or  reward) — then   write   whatever  you    wish 
to  say  about  your  religion,  all  that  you  hold  to  be  true  and 
established  by  strong  proof,   without  any  fear  or  appre- 
hension, without  curtailment  of  your  proofs  or  concealment 
of  your  beliefs;    for  I  purpose  only  to  listen  patiently  to 
your  arguments  and  to  yield  to  and   acknowledge  all  that 
is  convincing  therein,  submitting  willingly  without  refusing 
or  rejecting  or  fear,  in  order  that   I    may  compare  your 
account  and  mine.     You  are  free  to  set  forth  your  case; 
bring  forward  no  plea  that  fear  prevented  you  from  making 
your  arguments  complete  and  that  you  had  to  put  a  bridle 
on  your  tongue,  so  that  you  could  not  freely  express  your 
arguments.     So  now  you  are  free  to  bring  forward  all  your 
arguments,  that  you  may  not  accuse  me  of  pride,  injustice 
or  partiality  :  for  that  is  far  from  me. 

"  Therefore  bring  forward  all  the  arguments  you  wish  and 


APPENDIX   I 


435 


say  whatever  you  please  and  speak  your  mind  freely.  Now 
that  you  are  safe  and  free  to  say  whatever  you  please, 
appoint  some  arbitrator  who  will  impartially  judge  between 
us  and  lean  only  towards  the  truth  and  be  free  from  the 
empery  of  passion  :  and  that  arbitrator  shall  be  Reason, 
whereby  God  makes  us  responsible  for  our  own  rewards  and 
punishments.  Herein  I  have  dealt  justly  with  you  and  have 
given  you  full  security  and  am  ready  to  accept  whatever 
decision  Reason  may  give  for  me  or  against  me.  For  '  there 
is  no  compulsion  in  religion  '  (ii.  257)  and  I  have  only 
invited  you  to  accept  our  faith  willingly  and  of  your  own 
accord  and  have  pointed  out  the  hideousness  of  your  present 
belief.  Peace  be  with  you  and  the  mercy  and  blessings  of 
God  !  " 

There  can  be  very  little  doubt  but  that  this  document  has 
come  down  to  us  in  an  imperfect  condition  and  has  suffered 
mutilation  at  the  hands  of  Christian  copyists  :  the  almost 
entire  absence  of  any  refutation  of  such  distinctively  Chris- 
tian doctrines  as  that  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  and  the  refer- 
ences to  such  attacks  to  be  found  in  al-Kindi's  reply,  cer- 
tainly indicate  the  excision  of  such  passages  as  might  have 
given  offence  to  Christian  readers.1 

1  Similarly,  the  Spanish  editor  of  the  controversial  letters  that  passed 
between  Alvar  and  "  the  transgressor  "  (a  Christian  convert  to  Judaism), 
adds  the  following  note  after  Epist.  xv.  :  "  Quatuordecim  in  hac  pagina 
ita  abrasae  sunt  liniae,  ut  nee  verbum  unum  legi  possit.  Folium  subse- 
quens  exsecuit  possessor  codicis,  ne  transgressoris  deliramenta  legeren- 
tur."     (Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  torn.  exxi.  p.  483.) 


APPENDIX   II. 

CONTROVERSIAL   LITERATURE   BETWEEN    MUSLIMS   AND 
THE   FOLLOWERS   OF   OTHER   FAITHS. 

Although  Islam  has  had  no  organised  system  of  propa- 
ganda, no  tract  societies  or  similar  agencies  of  missionary 
work,  there  has  been  no  lack  of  reasoned  presentments  of 
the  faith  to  unbelievers,  particularly  to  Christians  and  Jews. 
Of  these  it  is  not  proposed  to  give  a  detailed  account  here, 
but  it  is  of  importance  to  draw  attention  to  their  existence 
if  only  to  remove  the  wide-spread  misconception  that  mass 
conversion  is  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  the  spread  of 
Islam  and  that  individual  conviction  has  formed  no  part  of 
the  propagandist  schemes  of  the  Muslim  missionary.  The 
beginnings  of  Muhammadan  controversy  against  unbelievers 
are  to  be  found  in  the  Qur'an  itself,  but  from  the  ninth 
century  of  the  Christian  era  begins  a  long  series  of  syste- 
matic treatises  of  Muhammadan  Apologetics,  which  has 
been  actively  continued  to  the  present  day.  The  number 
of  such  works  directed  against  the  Christian  faith  has  been 
far  more  numerous  than  the  Christian  refutations  of  Islam, 
and  some  of  the  ablest  of  Muslim  thinkers  have  employed 
their  pens  in  their  composition,  e.  g.  Abu  Yiisuf  b.  Ishaq 
al-Kindi  (a.d.  813-873),  al-Mas'udi  (ob.  a.d.  958),  Ibn  Hazm 
(a.d.  994-1064),  al-Ghazah"  (ob.  a.d.  iiii),  etc.  It  is  inter- 
esting also  to  note  that  several  renegades  have  written 
apologies  for  their  change  of  faith  and  in  defence  of  the 
Muslim  creed,  e.  g.  Ibn  Jazlah  in  the  eleventh  century, 
Yiisuf  al-Lubnani  and  Shaykh  Ziyadah  b.  Yahya  in  the 
thirteenth,  'Abd  Allah  b.  'Abd  Allah  in  the  fifteenth, 
Darwesh  'AH  in  the  sixteenth,  Ahmad  b.  'Abd  Allah,  an 
Englishman  born  at  Cambridge,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
etc.     These  latter  were  all  Christians  before  their  conver- 

436 


APPENDIX   II  437 

sion,  but  Jewish  renegades  also,  though  fewer  in  number, 
have  been  among  the  apologists  of  Islam.  In  India,  besides 
many  Muhammadan  books  written  against  the  Christian 
religion,  there  is  an  enormous  number  of  controversial  works 
against  Hinduism  :  as  to  whether  the  Muhammadans  have 
been  equally  active  in  other  heathen  countries,  I  have  no 
information. 

The  reader  will  find  a  vast  store  of  information  on  Muslim 
controversial  literature  in  the  following  writings  :  Moritz 
Steinschneider :  Polemische  und  apologetische  Litteratur  in 
arabischer  Sprache,  zwischen  Muslimen,  Christen  und  Juden. 
(Leipzig,  1877) ;  Ignaz  Goldziher  :  Uber  Muhammedanische 
Polemik  gegen  Ahl  al-kitab  (Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  32,  p.  341  ff. 
1878) ;  Martin  Schreiner :  Zur  Geschichte  der  Polemik 
zwischen  Juden  und  Muhammedanern  (Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  42, 
p.  591  ff.  1888) ;  W.  A.  Shedd  :  Islam  and  the  Oriental 
Churches,  pp.  252-3  ;  Carl  Giiterbock  :  Der  Islam  in  Lichte 
der  byzantinischen  Polemik.     (Berlin,  1912.) 


APPENDIX   III. 

MUSLIM   MISSIONARY   SOCIETIES. 

The  formation  of  societies  for  carrying  on  a  propaganda 
in  an  organised  and  systematic  manner  is  a  recent  develop- 
ment in  the  missionary  history  of  Islam — as  indeed  it  is 
comparatively  recent  in  the  history  of  Christian  missions. 
Such  Muslim  missionary  societies  would  appear  to  have  been 
formed  in  conscious  imitation  of  similar  organisations  in 
the  Christian  world,  and  are  not  in  themselves  the  most 
characteristic  expressions  of  the  missionary  spirit  in  Islam. 
In  the  Western  world  there  is  very  little  to  note.    No  attempt 
seems  to  have  been  made  to  form  such  a  society  before  the 
latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  earliest  efforts 
were  attended  with  little  success.     When  H.  M.  Stanley  in 
1875  urged  in  the  English  Press  the  sending  of  a  Christian 
mission  to  King  Mutesa  of  Uganda,  the  wide-spread  attention 
paid  to  his  appeal  led  to  the  formation  of  a  missionary 
society  in  Constantinople  for  the  propagation  of  Islam  in 
that  country,  but  no  Muhammadan  missionaries  were  ever 
sent  to  Uganda,  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Russo-Turkish 
war  in  1878  diverted  the  attention  of  the  Turks  from  any 
such  enterprise.1     A  similar  failure  to  establish  organised 
missionary  effort  was  manifested  when  the  Anglo-Egyptian 
Government  of  the  Sudan  marked  out  zones  of  influence  for 
various  Christian  missionary  societies  in  districts  the  natives 
of  which  were  heathen ;  some  Muslims  of  Cairo  claimed  that 
a  part  of  the  territory  should  be  allotted  to  the  followers  of 
Islam;    whereupon  the  Government  replied  that  all  they 
had  to  do  was  to  send  the  missionaries  and  the  same  facilities 
would  be  afforded  to  them  as  to  the  Christian  missionaries ; 
but  the  necessary  organisation  was  lacking  and  the  matter 
was  allowed  to  drop.2     In  1910  Shaykh  Rashid,  the  editor  of 
al-Manar,  founded  a  missionary  society  in  Cairo,  the  object 
of  which  is  to  establish  a  college   (entitled  Ddr  al-dawah 

1  Richter,  pp.  164-5.  2  Artin,  p.  35. 

438 


APPENDIX   III 


439 


wal-irshdd)  for  the  training  of  missionaries  and  apologists 
for  Islam,  who  are  to  be  sent  primarily  into  heathen  and 
Christian  lands,  but  also  into  those  Muhammadan  countries 
in  which  attempts  are  being  made  to  induce  the  Muhamma- 
dans  to  abandon  their  faith.1 

But  it  is  in  India  that  there  has  been  the  greatest  expan- 
sion of  such  organisations.     One  of  the  best  organised  of 
these  is  probably  the  Anjuman  Himayat-i-Islam  of  Lahore, 
but  propagandist  work  forms  only  a  small  part  of  the  wide 
field  of  its  activities  and  it  cannot  therefore  be  described  as 
a  missionary  society  pure  and  simple.     The  original  purpose 
for  which  the  Anjuman  Harm  Islam  of  Ajmer  was  founded 
was  to  answer  the  objections  urged  against  Islam  by  the 
members  of  the  Arya  Samaj,  but  it  included  among  its 
objects  the  preaching  of  Islam  and  the  providing  of  food 
and  clothing  to  new  converts.2     The  Anjuman  Wa'z-i-Islam, 
as  its  name  denotes,  concentrated  its  efforts  on  the  preaching 
of  Islam,  and,  while  Mawlavi  Baqa  Husayn  Khan  (p.  283) 
was  its  Secretary,  published  lists  of  the  converts  gained — as 
did  also  the  Anjuman-i-Islam  and  the  Anjuman  Tabligh-i- 
Islam  (which  aimed  at  the  conversion  of  the  Hindu  untouch- 
ables) established  in  Haydarabad  (Deccan),  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  either  of  these  societies  continues  to  exist.3 
Among   the   societies   that   have   been   established   in   the 
twentieth  century  are  the  Madrasa  Ilahiyyat  at  Cawnpore, 
for  the  training  of  missionaries  and  the  publication  of  tracts 
in  defence  of  Islam  and  in  refutation  of  attacks  made  upon 
it;   and  the  Anjuman  Isha  at  wa  Ta'lim-i-Islam  at  Batalah 
in  the  Panjab,  with  similar  objects.     But  the  largest  of 
these  organisations  is  the  Anjuman  Hidayat  al-Islam  of 
Dehli,  to  which  as  many  as  twenty-four  other  societies,4  in 
various  parts  of  India,  are  affiliated ;  this  Anjuman  sends  out 
missionaries  to  preach  the  doctrines  of  Islam  and  to  hold 
controversies  with  non-Muslims,  and  publishes  controversial 
literature,  especially  in  refutation  of  the  attacks  made  by 
the  members  of  the  Arya  Samaj. 

1  The  Moslem  World,  vol.  i.  p.  441. 

R.  du  M.  M.,  vol.  xv.  p.  374;  vol.  xvin.  pp.  216,  224. 

2  Rajputana  Herald,  April  17,  1889. 

3  Mohammedan  World  of  To-day,  p.  183 

4  A  list  of  these  is  given  on  p.  19  of  the  Annual  Report  for  the  year 

1328  H. 


TITLES    OF    WORKS    CITED    BY    ABBREVIATED 

REFERENCES. 

(The  Titles,  etc.,  of  books  quoted  once  only,  are  given  in  full 

in  the  foot-notes.) 

A  a  (P.  J.  B.  Robide  van  der)  :  Reizen  naar  Nederlandsch  Nieuw-Guinea, 
met  Geschied-   en  Aardrijkskundige  Toelichtingen.     (The   Hague, 

1879O 
'A  bd  al-Razzaq  al-Samarqandi  :   Matla'  al-sa'dayn  wa  majma'  al-bah- 

rayn.     (India  Office  MS.  No.  2704.) 
Abh.  f.  d.  K.  d.  M.  hrsg.  v.  d.  D  M  G  :   Abhandlungen  fur  die  Kunde 

des  Morgenlandes,  herausgegeben  von  der  Deutschen  Morgenlan- 

dischen  Gesellschaft.     (Leipzig.) 
A  bu'l-Fida  :  Geographie  d'Aboulfeda,  traduite  par  M.  Reinaud.     (Paris, 

1848.) 
Abul-Ghazl :   Histoire  des   Mogols   et   des  Tartares   par  Aboul-Ghazi 

Behadour  Khan,  traduite  par  le  Baron   Desmaisons.     (St.  Peters- 
burg, 1 87 1-4.) 
Abu  Salih  :  The  Churches  and  Monasteries  of  Egypt,  edited  and  trans- 
lated "by  B.  T.  A.  Evetts.     (Oxford,  1895.) 
Abu  Shamah:  Arabische  Quellenbeitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  Kreuzziige 

ubersetzt  und  herausgegeben  von  E.  P.  Goergens  und  R.  Rohricht. 

Erster  Band  :  Zur  Geschichte  Salah  ad-din's.     (Berlin,  1879.) 
Abu  'Ubayd  al-Bakrl :  Fragments'de  geographies  et  d'historiens  Arabes 

et  Persans  inedits,  relatifs  aux  anciens  peuples  du  Caucase  et  de  la 

Russie  meridionale,  traduits   par  C.  Defremery.     (J.  A.  ivme  serie. 

Tome  xiii,  1849.) 
Abu  Yusuf  :  Kitab  al-Kharaj.     (Cairo,  A.H.  1302.) 

Adeney  (W.  F.) :  The  Greek  and  Eastern  Churches.     (Edinburgh,  1908.) 
Ahmad  b.  Yahy<X  b.  al-Murtada  :  Al-Mu'tazilah,  being  an  extract  from 

the  Kitab  "al-Milal  wa'1-Nihal,  edited  by  T.  W.  Arnold.     (Leipzig, 

1902.) 
Allegret  (E.)  :    L'Islamisme  en  Afrique.     (Revue  Chretienne,  iiime  ser., 

tome  xiv.     (Paris,  1901.) 
Alvar :  (1)  Alvari  Cordubensis  Epistolae.     (Migne,  Patr.  Lat.  torn,  cxxi.) 

(2)  Indiculus  Luminosus.     (id.  ib.) 
Alvarez :  Viaggio  nella  Ethiopia  al  Prete  Ianni  fatto  par  Don  Francesco 

Alvarez  Portughese.     (1520-27.)     (Ramusib.     Tom.  i.) 
Amari  (Michele) :  Storia  dei  Musulmani  di  Sicilia.   /Florence,  1854-72.) 
Amelineau  (E.)  :   £tude  sur  le  Christianisme  en  Egypte   au  septieme 

siecle.     (Paris,  1887.) 
lAmr  b.  Mattai  :  Maris,  Amri  et  Slibae  De  Patriarchis  Nestorianorum 

Commentaria,  ed.  Henricus  Gismondi.    Pars  Altera.    (Romae,  1896.) 

440 


TITLES   OF   WORKS   CITED  441 

Anderson  (John):  Chinese  Mohammedans.  (Journal  of  the  Anthropo- 
logical Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  vol.  i.  London, 
1872.) 

Andriessen  (W.  F.) :  De  Islam  in  Nederlandsch  Indie.  (Vragen  van 
den  Dag.     Amsterdam,  1889.) 

'Arabfaqlh  :  Histoire  de  la  conquete  de  PAbyssinie  (XVIe  siecle)  par 
Chihab  ed-did  Ahmed  ben  'Abd  el-Qader  surnomme  Arab-Faqih. 
Texte  arabe  publie  par  Rene  Basset.     (Paris,  1897-1909.) 

Avgensola  (B.  Leonardo  de)  :  Conquista  de  las  Islas  Malucas.     (Madrid, 

,      l6°9-)  , 

Arminjon  (Pierre) :  Etrangers  et  proteges  dans  l'empire  ottoman.    (Paris, 

.1903-) 
Artin  (Yacoub  Pasha)  :    England  in  the  Sudan,  translated  by  George 

Robb.     (London,  19  n.) 
Asboth    (J.   de)  :    An    official   tour   through    Bosnia    and    Herzegovina. 

(London,  1890.) 
Assemani  (J.  S.)  :  Bibliotheca  Orientalis  Clementino-Vaticana.     (Rome, 

1719-28.) 
Azdl :  Futuh  al-Sham  by  Muhammad  ibn  'Abd  Allah  al-Azdl  al-Basrl, 

edited  by  W.  N.  Lees.     (Calcutta,  1854.) 
Bahd   al-Dln :    Vita    et   res   gestae    Saladini,   auctore    Bohadino    filio 

Sjeddadi.     Edidit  A.  Schultens.     {Lugduni  Batavorum,  1732.) 
Baladhuri :    Liber    Expugnationis    Regionum,   auctore    Imamo   Ahmed 

ibn  Jahja  ibn  Djabir  al-Beladsori,  ed.  M.  J.  de  Goeje.     (Leiden,  1866.) 
Barbaro  :  Viaggio  di  Iosafa  Barbaro  nella  Persia.     (Ramusio,  Tom.  ii.) 
Barbier   de  Meynardr  (A.  C.)  :    Un   document   turc   sur  la   Circassie. 

(Centenaire  de  l'Ecole  des   Langues  Orientates  Vivantes.     Recueil 

de  Memoires  publie  par  les  Professeurs  de  l'Ecole.     Paris,  1895.) 
Barbosa  (Odoardo)  :  Libro  di  Odoardo  Barbosa  Portoghese  dell'  Indie 

Orientali,  1516.     (Ramusio,  Tom.  i.) 
Barhebraeus  :   (1)  Gregorii    Barhebraei    Chronicon   Ecclesiasticum,  ed. 

J.  B.  Abbeloos  et  T.  J.  Lamy.     (Louvain,  1872-77.) 

(2)  Abu'l-Faraj,    Ta'rlkh    Mukhtasar   al-Duwal,    ed.    A. 

Salihanl.     (Bairut,  1890.) 

(3)  Gregorii  Abulpharagii   sive    Bar-Hebraei  Chronicon 

Syriacum,  ed.  et  vert.  P.  J.  Bruns  et  G.  G.  Kirsch. 
(Lipsiae,  1789.) 

Barros  (J.  de)  :  Da  Asia.     (Lisbon,  i777r$-) 
Basset  (Rene)  :  Etudes  sur  1'Histoire  d'Ethiopie.     (Pans,  1882.) 
Bastian  (A.)  :  Die  Volker  des  ostlichen  Asien.     (Leipzig,  1866.) 
Baudier  (Michel)  :  Histoire  Generale  de  la  Religion  des  Turcs.     (Rouen, 

Baudissln    (W.  W.   Graf  von)  :   Eulogius   und  Alvar.     Ein  Abschnitt 
spanischer   Kirchengeschichte   aus   der  Zeit  der  Maurenherrschaft. 

(Leipzig,  1872.) 
Baumgarten  (Martin)  :  The  travels  of.     (A  Collection  of  Voyages  and 

Travels.     London,  1752.)  .      ,  T.     ¥    , 

Becker  (C.  H.)  :   (1)  Materialien  zur  Kenntms  des  Islam  in   Deutsch- 

Ostafrika.    (Der  Islam,  vol.  ii.    Strassburg,  191 1.) 

(2)  Papyri    Schott-Reinhardt    I.,   herausgegeben    und 

erklart.      (Veroffentlichungen    aus  der    Heidel- 

berger    Papyrus-Sammlung,    iii.)  (Heidelberg, 
1906.) 

(3)  Zur  Geschichte  des  ostlichen  Sudan.  (Der  Islam, 

vol.  i.     Strassburg,  1910.) 


442  TITLES   OF   WORKS   CITED 

Beke  (T.  C.) :   Routes  in  Abyssinia.     (J.  R.  Ggr.  Soc,  vol.  xiv.,  1844.) 
Belin :  Fetwa  relatif  a  la  condition  des  Zimmis  et  particulierement  de, 

Chretiens,  en  pays  musulmans,  depuis  l'etablissement  de  l'islamismes 

jusqu'au  milieu  du  viiie   siecle   de   l'hegire,  traduit    de  l'arabe   par 

M.  Belin.     (J.  A.  ivme  serie,  tome  xviii.,  185 1.) 
Bell  (H.  I.)  :    Greek  Papyri  in  the  British  Museum.     Catalogue,  with 

Texts,  vol.  iv.     The  Aphrodito  Papyri,  edited  by  H.  I.  Bell.     With 

an  appendix  of  Coptic  Papyri,  edited  by  W.  E.  Crum.    (London,  1910.) 
Bellew  (H.  W.)  :  The  races  of  Afghanistan.     (Calcutta,  1880.) 
Benedict  of  Peterborough :    Gesta   Regis    Henrici    Secundi    Benedicti 

Abbatis.     Edited  by  William  Stubbs.     (London,  1867.) 
Berg  (L.  W.  C.  van  den)  :  (1)  De  Mohamedaansche  geestelijkeid  en  de 

geestelijke  goederen  op  Java  en 
Madoera.  (Ts.  ind.  t.-  1.-  vk.  Vol. 
xxvii.,  1 88 1.) 
(2)  Le  Hadhramout  et  les  Colonies  Arabes 
dans  PArchipel  Indien.  (Batavia, 
1886.) 
Bijdr.  t.  d.  t.  I.  en  vlk  :  Bijdragen  tot  de  Taal-,  Land-  en  Volkenkunde 

van   Nederlandsch-Indie,  uitgegeven  door   het    Koniglijk    Instituut 

voor   de   Taal-,    Land-    en    Volkenkunde   van    Nederlandsch-Indie. 

('s  Gravenhage.) 
Bizzi :  Relatione   della  visita   fatta  da   me,  Marino   Bizzi,  Arcivescovo 

d'Antivari,  nelle  parti  della  Turchia,  Antivari,  Albania  e  Servia,  alia 

Santita  di  Nostro  Signore  Papa  Paolo  Ouinto.     1610.     (Bibliotheca 

Barberina,  Rome.     Nr-  lxiii.  13.) 
Blau :    Chronik    der    Sultane   von   Bornu,   bearbeitet   von    Otto   Blau. 

(ZDMG.,  vol.  6.   1852.) 
Blochet  (E.)  :    Introduction   a   PHistoire   des    Mongols   de    Fadl   Allah 

Rashid  ed-Din.    ("  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial  "  Series,    xii.)    (London, 

1910.) 
Blount :  A  voyage  into  the  Levant  ;  a  brief  relation  of  a  journey  lately 

performed    by    Master    Henry    Blount,    Gentleman.     1634-36.     (A 

Collection  of  Voyages  and  Travels.     London,  1745.) 
Blunt  (W.  S.)  :  The  Future  of  Islam.     (London,  1883.) 
Blyden  (E.  WT.)  :   Christianity,  Islam  and  the  Negro  Race.     (London, 

1888.) 
Bobrovnikoff  (S.)  :   Moslems  in  Russia.     (The   Moslem  World,  vol.    i. 

London,  191 1.) 
Bokemeyer  (H.)  :  Die  Molukken.     (Leipzig,  1888.) 
Bonaventura  di  S.  Antonio:  Informatione  di  Fra  Bonaventura  di   S. 

Antonio,   Reformato  di  S.  Francesco,  Missrio  d'Albania.     (Assisi,  li 

30  Luglio,  1652.)     (Bibliotheca  Chigiana,  Rome.     G.  iii.,  94.) 
Bonet-Maury  (G.)  :  L'Islamisme  et  le  Christianisme  en  Afrique.    (Paris, 

1906.) 
Bouche  (Pierre)  :  La  Cote  des  Esclaves  et  le  Dahomey.     (Paris,  1885.) 
Bretschneider  (E.)  :     (1)    Mediaeval    Researches    from    Eastern    Asiatic 

Sources.     (London,  1888.) 
(2)    On  the  Knowledge  possessed  by  the  Ancient 
Chinese  of  the  Arabs  and  Arabian  Colonies. 
(London,  1871.) 
Broomhall  (Marshall)  :   Islam  in  China.     (London,  1910.) 
Brosset  (M.  F.)  :  Histoire  de  la  Georgie.     (St.  Petersburg,  1849-58.) 
Brumund  (J.  F.  G.)  :  Bijdragen  tot  de  kennis  van  het  Hindoeisme  op 

Java.     (Verh.  Bat.  Gen.  van  K.  en  W.     Deel  xxxiii.     1868.) 
Budge  (E.  A.  Wallis)  :  The  Egyptian  Sudan,  its  history  and  monuments. 

(London,  1907.) 


TITLES   OF   WORKS   CITED  443 

Burchard  :  Burchardi  de  Monte  Sion  Descriptio  Terrae  Sanctae.    (Pere- 
grinatores  Medii  Aevi  Quatuor.    Ed.  J.  C.  M.  Laurent.    Lipsiae,  1864.) 
Burckhardt  (J.  L.)  :  (1)  Travels  in  Nubia.     (London,  1S19.) 

(2)  Travels  in  Syria  and  the  Holy  Land.     (London, 
1822.) 
Burton  (Richard  F.)  :  (1)  Abeokuta     and     the     Camaroon     Mountains. 

(London,  1863.) 
(2)    First  Footprints  in  East  Africa.  (London,  1856.) 
Busbecq  (Augier  Ghislen  de)  :  Omnia  quae  extant.     (Amstelodami,  1660.) 
Businello  (P.)  :    Historische    Nachrichten   von   der    Regierungsart   der 

osmanischen  Monarchic     (Leipzig,  1778.) 
Caetani    (Leone,    Principe   di   Teano)  :    Annali   dell'    Islam.     (Milano, 

1905-        .) 
Cahun  (Leon)  :  Introduction  a  l'histoire  de  PAsie.     Turcs  et  Mongols. 

(Paris,  1896.) 
Campen  (C.  F.  H.) :  Nalezingen  op  het  opstel  over  de  godsdienstbegnppen 
der   Halemaherasche   Alfoeren.     (Ts.   ind.   t.-  1.-  vk.     Deel   xxviii. 
1883.) 
Canne  (H.  D.)  :  Bijdrage  tot  de  Geschiedenis  der  Lampongs.     (Ts.  ind. 

t.-  1.-  vk.     Deel  xi.     1862.) 
Cantacuzenos :  Trattato  di  Theodoro  Spandugino  Cantacusino  de'  costumi 

de'  Turchi.     (Venice,  I573-) 
Chavannes  (E.) :    Documents   sur  les   Tou-Kiue   (Turcs)   Occidentaux. 
(Sbornik  Trudov  Orchonskoy  Expedicii.   VI.    St.  Petersburg,  1903.) 
Chirdgh    'All :    Maulavi    Cheragh   Ali  :   A   Critical   Exposition   of  the 

Popular  Jihad.     (Bombay,  1885.) 
Chwolsohn  (D.) :  Die  Ssabier  und  der  Ssabismus.     (St.  Petersburg,  1856.) 
Chytraeus  (David)  :  Oratio  de  statu  ecclesiarum  hoc  tempore  in  Graecia, 

Asia,  Africa,  Ungaria,  Boemia,  etc.  (Wittebergae,  1580) 
Clark  (E.  L.)  :  The  Races  of  European  Turkey.  (New  York,  187b.) 
Comuleo  :  Instruttioni  al  Revdo  Don  Alessandro  Comuleo  Archiprete  di 
S.  Girolamo  di  Roma  mandato  da  Papa  Clemente  Ottavo  al  Gran 
Duca  di  Moscovia,  et  altri  Principi,  et  Potentati  delle  Parti  Setten- 
trionali.  Con  una  Relatione  del  Medesimo  Comuleo  fatta  a  S. 
Santita   sopra  le  cose  del  Turco.     (Bibliotheca   Barberma,  Rome. 

Nr-  lviii.  33.)  .  . 

Contenson  (L.  de)  :  Chretiens  et  Musulmans.     (Paris,  1901O 
Coolsma  (S  ) :  De  Zendingeeuw  voor  Nederlandsch  Oost-Indie.   (Utrecht, 

Cornaro'(F.) :  Creta  Sacra,  authore  Flaminio  Cornelia     (Venice,  17550 
CrawfurdHohn):  (1)  A  Descriptive  Dictionary  of  the  Indian  Islands  and 

adjacent  Countries.     (London,  1856.) 
(2)  HistoryofthelndianArchipelago.  (Edinburgh,  1820. 
Creasy  (Sir  Edward  S.)  :  History  of  the  Ottoman  Turks.     (London,  1878.) 
S:(  Summario  della   Relatione  della  Visita  di   A  bama    fetu   per 

ordine  della  Sac.  Congne  da  Don  Marco  Crisio  Sacerdote  Albanese. 

165 1.     (Bibliotheca  Chigiana,  Rome.     G.  in.  940 
Crusius  (Martin) :  Turcograecia.     (Basileae,  1584.)  ,Tnnrnal  of  the 

Dalrvmfile  (A)'    Essay  towards  an  account  of  Sulu.     (Journal  ot   the 
DalVZt!n  Xriipelago'and  Eastern  Asia.     Vol.  in.     Singapore   I  49-) 
Dalton  (E.  T.) :   Descriptive  Ethno  ogy  of  Bengal      (Calcutta   1 ^7 
BpIh  fosse  (Maurice) :    Les   confrenes   musulmanes  et  le  marapoutisme 

dans ^lis  pays  du  Senegal  et  du  Niger.     (Renseignements  Coloniaux 

et  Documents  publies'par  le  Comite  de  I'Afnque  Francaise   et    le 

^o^cteT^C^^^  Les   confrer.es    religieuses 

musulmanes.     (Alger,  1897.) 


444  TITLES  OF  WORKS  CITED 

Deveria  (Gabriel) :  Origine  de  l'Islamisme  en  Chine.  (Centenaire  de 
l'fecole  des  Langues  Orientales  Vivantes.  Recueil  de  Memoires 
publie  par  les  Professeurs  de  l'£cole.     Paris,  1895.) 

Dobschutz  (E.  von)  :  Die  confessionellen  Verhaltnisse  in  Edessa  unter 
der  Araberherrschaft.  (Zeitschrift  fiir  wissenschaftliche  Theologie. 
4ier  Jahrgang,  1898.) 

D'dllinger  (J.  J.  T.) :  Mohammed's  Religion  nach  ihrer  inneren  Entwick- 
lung  und  ihrem  Einflusse  auf  das  Leben  der  Volker.     (Munich,  1838.) 

Dorostamus  (Athanasius)  :  Neueste  Beschreibung  derer  Griechischen 
Christen  in  der   Tiirckey,  aufgesetzt  von  Jacob   Elssner.     (Berlin, 

I737-) 
Doughty  (Charles  M.)  :  Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta.     (Cambridge,  1888.) 

Dousa :   Georgii    Dousae   de   Itinere  suo  Constantinopolitano  epistola. 

(Lugduni  Batavorum,  1599.) 
Doutte  (E.) :    Notes  sur  l'lslam  maghribin.     (Revue   de   l'Histoire   des 

Religions,  XL,  XLI.     Paris,  1899,  1900.) 
Dozy  (R.  P.  A.)  :  (1)  Essai  sur  l'histoire  de  l'Islamisme.     (Leyde,  1879.) 

(2)  Histoiredes  Musulmans  d'Espagne.   (Leyde,  186 1.) 

(3)  Recherches  sur  l'histoire  et  la  litterature  de  l'Es- 

pagne  pendant  le  moyen  age,  3me  ed.     (Leyde, 
1881.) 
Driesch  (G.  C.  von  den)  :  Historische  Nachricht  von  der  Rom.  Kayserl. 

Gross-Botschaft  nach  Constantinopel,  welche  .  .  .  der  Graf  Damian 

Hugo  von  Virmondt  ruhmlichst  verrichtet.     (Niirnberg,  1723.) 
Dulaurier  (M.  E.)  :    Addition  au  memoire   intitule*  Liste  des  pays  qui 

relevaient   de   l'empire  javanais  de   Madjapahit.     (J.  A.  ivIne  serie, 

tome  xiii.  1849.) 
Duveyrier  (H.) :  La  confrerie  musulmane  de  Sidi  Mohammed  Ben  'Ali 

Es-Senousi.     (Paris,  1886.) 
East  (D.  J.)  :  Western  Africa.     (London,  1844.) 
Elias  of  Nisibis  :  F.  Baethgen  :    Fragmente  syrischer  und  arabischer 

Historiker.    (Abh.  f.  d.  K.  d.  M.  hrsg.  v.  d.  DMG.    Vol.  iii.    No.  3. 

1884.) 
Elliot  (Sir  H.  M.)  :  The  History  of  India,  as  told  by  its  own  historians. 

The  Muhammadan  Period.    Edited  by  Prof.  John  Dowson.   London, 

1872-7.) 
Encyclopaedic  van  Nederlandsch-Indie,  met  medewerking  van  verschil- 

lende  ambtenaren,  geleerden  en  officieren,  samengesteld  door  P.  A. 

van  der  Lith  en  J.  F.  Snelleman.     (Leiden,  1899-1905.) 
Enhueber  (J.  B.)  :  Dissertatio   de  haeresi  Elipandi  et  Felicis.     (Migne, 

Patr.  Lat.  torn,  ci.) 
Eruslanov    (P.)  :    MaroMexaHCKaa     nponaran^a     cpejtn     lepeMHCL 

y<J)iiMCKoii  ryGepmii.     (Moscow,  1895.) 
Eulogius  :  Memoriale  Sanctorum.     (Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  torn,  cxv.) 
Eutychius  :  Eutychii  Patriarchae  Alexandrini  Annales,  ed.  L.  Cheikho, 

B.  Carra  de  Vaux,  H.  Zayyat.     (Corpus  Scriptorum  Christianorum 

Orientalium.      Scriptores   Arabici.     Ser.    iii.     Tom.    vi-vii.     Paris, 

1906-9.) 
Evans    (A.   J.)  :    Through    Bosnia   and    the    Herzegovina.      (London, 

1876.) 
Farlati  (Daniel)  :  Illyricum  Sacrum.     (Venice,  1769-18 19.) 
Finlay  (G.) :  A  History  of  Greece,  from  its  Conquest  by  the  Romans  to 

the  present  time.     (Oxford,  1877.) 
Firishtah  :   History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Mahomedan   Power  in  India, 

translated  from  the  Persian  of  Mahomed  Kasim  Ferishta  by  John 

Briggs.     (London,  1829.) 


TITLES   OF  WORKS   CITED  445 

Forget  (D.  A.)  :    L'Islam  et  le  Christianisme  dans  PAfrique  Centrale. 

(Paris,  1900.) 
Forrest  (T.)  :  A  Voyage  to  New  Guinea  and  the   Moluccas.     (London, 

1779-)  , 

Fournel  (Henri) :   Les  Berbers.     Etude  sur  la  conquete  de  l'Afrique  par 

les  Arabes.     (Paris,  1875.) 
Frere  (Sir  Bartle)  :  (1)   Eastern  Africa  as  a  field  for  Missionary  Labour. 

(London,  1874.) 
(2)   Indian  Missions.     3rd.  ed.     (London,  1874.) 
Gaetan  :  Relatione  di  Ivan  Gaetan  del  discoprimento  dell'  Isole  Molucche. 

(Ramusio.     Tom.  i.) 
Gairdner  (W.  H.  T.)  :  The  Reproach  of  Islam.     (London,  1909.) 
Garnett  (L.  M.  J.)  :  The  Women  of  Turkey  and  their  Folklore.     The 

Jewish  and  Moslem  Women.     (London,  1891.) 
Gasztowtt  (Thadee)  :  La  Pologne  et  1*1  slam.     (Paris,  1907.) 
Gazetteer  of  the  Bombay  Presidency.     (Bombay,  1877-1904.) 
Gazetteer  of  the  North- Western  Provinces  of  India.    (Allahabad,  1874-84.) 
Gazetteer  of  the  Province  of  Oudh.     (Lucknow,  1877.) 
Gazetteer  of  Rajputana.     (Calcutta,  1879.) 

Georgieviz  (Bartholomaeus)  :  De  Turcarum  Moribus  Epitome.     (1598.) 
Georgirenes  (Joseph)  :   A  Description  of  the  Present  State  of  Samos, 

Nicaria,  Patmos  and  Mount  Athos.     (London,  1678.) 
Gerlach  (Stephan) :    Tage-Buch    der  von   zween   .  .  .   Romischen   Kay- 

sern  ...    an    die    Ottommanische    Pforte   .  .  .  abgefertigten  .  .  . 

Gesandtschaft.     (Frankfurt,  1674.) 
Gfrbrer    (A.   F.)  :    Byzantinische    Geschichten,   hrgs.   von  J.   B.   Weiss. 

(Graz,  1872-7.) 
Ghulam  Sarwar  :  Khazinat  al-Asflya.     (Lahore,  n.  d.) 
Gibbon  (Edward)  :  The  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 

Empire.     (London,  1881.) 
Gmelin    (M.    F.)  :    Christensclaverei    und    Renegatenthum    unter    den 

Volkern  des  Islam.     (Berlin,  1873.)  . 

Gobineau  (A.  de)  :    (1)   Les  Religions   et  les    Philosophies  dans  1  Asie 

Centrale.     (Paris,  1865.) 
(2)  Trois  Ans  en  Asie.     (Paris,  1859.) 
Goldziher  (Ignaz)  :   Muhammedanische  Studien.     (Halle,  1889-90.) 
Gottheil  (R.  J.  H.)  :  Dhimmis  and  Moslems  in  Egypt.     (Old  Testament 

and  Semitic  Studies  in  memory  of  William  Rainey  Harper.    Vol.  11. 

Chicago,  1908.)  .  .     u     , 

Grenard:  J.-L.  Dutreuil  de  Rhins.  Mission  Scientifique  dans  La  Haute 
Asie,  1890-1895.  IIme  Partie.  Le  Turkestan  et  le  'libet,  etude 
ethn'ographique  et  sociologique,  par  F.  Grenard.  II I Ine  Partie. 
Histoire,   Linguistique,  Archeologie,   Geographie,   par   t .    Grenard. 

(Paris,  1898.)  .  ,     ^ 

Grenard  :  La  legende  de  Satok  Boghra  Khan  et  l'histoire,  par  M .   r . 

Grenard.     (Journal  Asiatique,  ix'"e  serie,  tome  xv.     Pans    1900.) 
Groeneveldt  (W.   P.)  :    Notes  on  the  Malay  Archipelago  and  Malacca, 

compiled  from    Chinese  sources.     (Verh.  Bat.  Gen.  van  K.  en  W . 

Deel  xxxix.     1880.)  .     .  ,  , 

Grosier   (J.  B.  G.  A.) :    De   la   Chine,  ou   description   generale  de   cet 

GuignePsU'(C.  L.™%h histoire   generale   des   Huns,  des   Turcs,  des 

ffaJS*?J0!  AHtsToVyofthe  Orthodox  Church  of  Cyprus.  (London,  1901.) 
Hageman  (J.)  :    Bijdrage  tot  de  Geschiedems  van    Borneo.     (Ts.  ind. 
t.-  1.-  vk.     Deel  vi.     1856.) 


446  TITLES  OF  WORKS  CITED 

Hammer-Pur gstall    (Joseph    von)  :    (i)  Geschichte    des    osmanischen 

Reiches.     (Pesth,  1827-35.) 

(2)  Des       osmanischen       Reichs 

Staatsverfassung  und  Staats- 
verwaltung.     (Wien,  181 5.) 

(3)  Geschichte      der      Goldenen 

Horde  in  Kiptschak.    (Pesth, 
1840.) 

(4)  Geschichte       der      Ilchanen. 

(Darmstadt,  1842-3.) 
Haneberg  (B.)  :  Das  muslimische  Kriegsrecht.  (Munich,  187 1.) 
Hasselt  (A.  L.  von)  :  Volksbeschrijving  van  Midden-Sumatra.     (Leiden, 

1882). 
Hauri    (J.) :    Der    Islam    in    seinem    Einfluss    auf    das    Leben   seiner 

Bekenner.     (Leiden,   1883.) 
Haywood  (A.  H.  W.)  :  Through  Timbuctu  and  across  the  Great  Sahara. 

(London,  1912.) 
Hefele  (C.J.)  :  Beitrage  zur  Kirchengeschichte,  Archaologie  und  Liturgik. 

(Tubingen,  1864.) 
Helfferich  (Adolf)  :  Der  Westgothische  Arianismus  und  die  Spanische 

Ketzer-Geschichte.     (Berlin,  i860.) 
Hertzberg  (G.  F.)  :    Geschichte   der  Byzantiner  und  des  Osmanischen 

Reiches.     (Berlin,  1882-3.) 
Hiddyah  :  The  Hedaya,  or  Guide  :  A  Commentary  on  the  Mussulman 

Laws,  translated  by  Charles  Hamilton.     (London,  1791.) 
Hilal  al-Sabl :  Ta'rlkh  al-Wuzara'  ed.  H.  F.  Amedroz.     (Beirut,  1904.) 
Hill  (Aaron)  :   A  Full   and  Just   Account  of  the  Present  State  of  the 

Ottoman  Empire.     (London,  1709.) 
Hoevell  (G.  W.  W.  C.  Baron  von)  :  De  Kei-eilanden.     (Ts.  ind.  t.-l.-en 

vk.     Deel  xxxiii.     1890.) 
Hollander   (J.  J.  de)  :    Handleiding  bij   de   Beoefening   der    Land-  en 

Volkenkunde  van  Nederlandsch  Oost-Indie.     (Breda,  1884.) 
Hoveden  :  Chronica  Magistri  Rogeri  de  Hovedene,  edited  by  William 

Stubbs.     (London,  1868-71.) 
Howorth  (Sir  H.  H.)  :   History  of  the  Mongols.     (London,  1876-80.) 
Hurgronje  (C.  Snouck)  :    (1)   De  beteekenis  van  den  Islam  voor  zijne 

belijders  in  Oost-Indie.    (Leiden,  1883.) 

(2)  De  Sjattarijjah-secte.     (Med.  Ned.  Zende- 

linggen.     Vol.  xxxii.     1888.) 

(3)  Mekka.     (The  Hague,  1888-9.) 
Ibbetson  (D.  C.  J.)  :  The  Musulmans  of  the  Panjab.     (Indian  Evange- 
lical Review.     Vol.  x.     Calcutta,  1884.) 

Ibn  abi  Usaybi'ah  :  'Uyun  al-anba'  fi  tabaqat  al-atibba'.     (Cairo,  A.  H. 

1299.) 
Ibn  abi  Zar' :  Roudh  el-Kartas.     Histoire  des  Souverains  du  Maghreb, 

traduit  de  PArabe  par  A.  Beaumier.     (Paris,  i860.) 
Ibn  al-Athlr :  Ibn  el-Athiri  Chronicon  quod  perfectissimum  inscribitur, 

ed.  C.  J.  Tornberg.     (Leiden,  1851-76.) 
Ibn  Bafffiah  :  Voyages  d'Ibn  Batoutah,  texte  arabe,  accompagne  d'une 

traduction  par  C.  Defremery  et  B.  R.  Sanguinetti.     (Paris,  1853-8.) 
Ibn   Hawqal :    Kitab   al-masalik   wa'1-mamalik,   ed.   M.  G.  De   Goeje. 

(Bibliotheca  Geographorum  Arabicorum  II.     Leiden,  1873.) 
Ibn   Ishclq  :    Das    Leben    Muhammed's   nach    Muhammed    Ibn    Ishak, 

bearbeitet  von  Abd  el-Malik  Ibn  Hischam,  hrsg.  von  F.  Wiistenfeld. 

(Gottingen,  1859.) 
Ibn  Khaldun  :  Kitab  al-'ibar  wa  dlwan  al-mubtada'  wa'l  khabar  fi  ayyam 

al-'Arab  wa'l  Barbar.     (Bulaq,  1867.) 


TITLES   OF  WORKS   CITED  447 

Ibn   Khallik&n :    Biographical    Dictionary,    translated   by    Baron    Mac 

Guckin  de  Slane.     (Paris,  1843-71.) 
Ibn   Sa'd:   al-Tabaqat.      Biographien    Muhammeds,    seiner   Gefahrten 

und  der  spateren  Trager  des  I  slams  bis  zum  Jahre  230  der  Flucht, 

hrsg.  von  E.  Sachau,  etc.     (Leiden,  1904-         .) 
Ibn  Sa'd :  Die  Schreiben  Muhammads  und  die  Gesandtschaften  an  ihn. 

(Skizzen  und  Vorarbeiten  von  J.  Wellhausen.    Viertes  Heft.     Berlin, 

1889.) 
Idrisl  :  Description  de  l'Afrique  et  de  l'Espagne,  publiee  par  R.  Dozy  et 

M.  J.  de  Goeje.     (Leiden,  1866.) 
Informatione    del    Segretario  de    Propaganda    Fide   circa   la   missione 

d' Albania  de  fratri  Riformati  di  S.  Francesco.    (Bibliotheca  Chigiana, 

Rome.     G.  iii.  94.) 
Innes  (C.  A.)  :  Malabar  and  Anjengo  :  by  C.  A.  Innes,  edited  by  F.  B. 

Evans.     (Madras  District  Gazetteers.)     (Madras,  1908.) 
Isenberg  (C.  M.)  :  Abessinien.     (Bonn,  1844.) 
Ishok  of  Romgla  :  Chronique  de  Michel  le  Grand,  traduite  sur  la  version 

armenienne  du  pretre  Ischok  par  Victor  Langlois.     (Venise,  1868.) 
Isidori  Pacensis  Chronicon.     (Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  torn,  xcvi.) 
Islam  and  Missions,  being  papers  read  at  the  second  Missionary  Con- 
ference on  behalf  of  the  Mohammedan  World  at  Lucknow,  January 

23-28,  191 1,  edited  by  E.  M.  Wherry,  S.  M.  Zwemer,  C.  G.  Mylrea. 

(New  York,  etc.,  191 1.) 
IstaMiri  :  Kitab  Masalik  wa'1-Mamalik,  ed.  M.  J.  de  Goeje.     (Bibliotheca 

Geographorum  Arabicorum.  I.     Leiden,  1870.) 
J.  A.  :  Journal  Asiatique.     (Paris.) 

J.  A.  S.  B.  ;  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal.     (Calcutta.) 
/.  R.  Ggr.  Soc.  :  Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society.    (London.) 
Jacques   de    Vitry  :    Jacobi    de   Vitriaco    Libri    Duo.     Quorum   prior 

Orientalis,    sive    Hierosolymitanoe  :    Alter,    Occidentalis    Historian 

nomine    inscribitur.     Opera    D.    Francisci    Moschi    editi.     (Duaci, 

I597-)  j 

Jadrinzew  (N.)  :    Sibiren  :     Geographische,   ethnographische   und   his- 

torische  Studien,  bearbeitet  von  Ed.  Petri.     (Jena,  1886.) 
Jessup  (H.  H.)  :  The  Mohammedan  Missionary  Question.   (Philadelphia, 

1879.)  ... 

John  of  Gorz  :  Vita  Ioannis  Abbatis  Gorziensis,  auctore  Ioanne  Abbate 

S.  Arnulfi.     (Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  torn  cxxxvii.) 
John  of   Nikiu  ;   Chronique   de   Jean,  Eveque  de  Nikiou.     1  ublie  et 

traduit  par  H.  Zotenberg.     (Notices  et  extraits  des  Manuscnts  de  la 

Bibliotheque  Nationale.    Tome  xxiv.    Premiere  Partie.    Paris,  18S3.) 
Joinville  :  (Euvres  de  Jean,  Sire  de  Joinville,  ed.  N.  de  Wailly.    (Pans, 

Joselian  (Plato)  :  A  Short  History  of  the  Georgian  Church,  translated 

by  S.  C.  Malan.     (London,  1866.) 
Juzjanl:    Minhaj-i-Siraj    al-Juzjanl,  Tabaqat-i-Nasin,    ed.   W.    JNassau 

Lees.     (Calcutta,  1864.)  . 

Kanitz  (F.)  :  Die  fortschreitende  Arnautisirung  und  Muhamedanisirung 

Alt-Serbiens.       (Oesterreichische     Monatsschnft    fur    den    Orient. 

Vienna,  March,  1888.)  f  . 

Karamsin  (N.  M.) :  Histoire  de  l'Empire  de  Russie.     (Pans,  ^^9-^-) 
Keane  (A.  H.)  :  Asia,  edited  by  Sir  Richard  Temple.     (London,  1882.) 
Kern  (H.)  :   Over  den  invloed  der  Indische,  Arabische  en  Europeesche 

beschaving   op   de  volken   van   den   Indischen  Archipel.     (Leiden, 

1883  ) 
Khoja  Vrtlant  by  Sachedlna  Nanjlanl.     (Ahmadabad,  1892.) 
Kitab  al-Fihrist,  herausgegeben  von  G.  Fliigel.     (Leipzig,  187 1-2.) 


448  TITLES   OF  WORKS   CITED 

Klamroth  (M.)  :  Der  Islam  in  Deutschostafrika.     (Berlin,  1912.) 
Klaproth  (J.  von):  Aper^u  des  entreprises  des  Mongols  en  Georgie  et 

en  Armenie  dans  le  xiii  siecle.     (J.  A.  serie  ii.,  tome  xii.     1833.) 
Krehl  (Ludolf) :  Das  Leben  des  Muhammed.     (Leipzig,  1884.) 
Kremer  (A  von)  :  (1)  Culturgeschichte  des  Orients  unter  den  Chalifen. 

(Vienna,  1875.) 

(2)  Culturgeschichtliche  Streifziige  auf  dem  Gebiete 

des  Islams.     (Leipzig,  1873.) 

(3)  Geschichte   der  herrschenden    Ideen  des  Islams. 

(Leipzig,  1868.) 

(4)  Notizen    gesammelt    auf   einem    Ausfluge    nach 

Palmyra.     (Sitzb.    d.   Akad.   d.  Wiss.,  Philos.- 
hist.  CI.     Vol.  v.     1850.) 
Krieger  (Maximilian)  :  New  Guinea.     (Berlin,  1899.) 
Kritopoulos  (Metrophanes)  :    Metrophanis  Critopuli  Confessio.     (E.  J. 

Kimmel :  Monumenta  Fidei  Ecclesiae  Orientalis.    Pars.  II.)  (Jenae, 

1850.) 
Kiimm  (H.  K.  W.)  :  Khont-hon-nofer,  the  Lands  of  Ethiopia.  (London, 

1910.) 
Kyriakos  (A.   Diomedes) :   Geschichte  der  orientalischen   Kirchen  von 

1453-1898.     (Leipzig,  1902.) 
La  Jonquie're  (A.  de)  :  Histoire  de  PEmpire  Ottoman.     (Paris,  1881.) 
La  Saussaye  (P.  D.  Chantepie  de)  :  Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte. 

(Freiburg  I.  B.,  1887-9.) 
Lammens  (Henri)  :  Etudes  sur  le  regne  du  Calife  Omaiyade  Mo'awia 

Ier-     (Universite    Saint-Joseph,  Beyrouth  (Syrie).     Melanges   de  la 

Faculte  Orientale,  I.)     (Beyrouth,  1906.) 
Lane  (E.  W.)  :  The  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Modern  Egyptians. 

5th  ed.     (London,  i860.) 
Laurent  (J.  C.  M.)  :  Peregrinatores  Medii  Aevi  Quatuor.    (Lipsiae,  1864.) 
Lazar   (Victor):    Die  Siidrumanen   der   Tiirkei  und   der  angrenzenden 

Lander.     (Bukarest,  1910.) 
Le  Chatelier  (A.):  (1)  Les  Confreries  musulmanes  du  Hedjaz.     (Pans, 

1887.) 

(2)  L'Islam  au  xixe  siecle.     (Paris,  1888.) 

(3)  L'Islam  dans  l'Afrique  Occidental.    (Paris,  1899.) 
Le  Quien  (Michael):  Oriens  Christianus.     (Paris,  1740.) 

Lea  (H.  C):  The  Moriscos  of  Spain:  their  conversion  and  expulsion. 

(London,  1901.) 
Leake  (W.  M.) :  Researches  in  Greece.     (London,  1814.) 
Leo   Africanus:    Delia    Descrittione   dell'   Africa,   par   Giovani    Lioni 

Africano.     (Ramusio.     Tom.  i.) 
Leslie  (Gaultier  de) :  L'Ambassade  a  la  Porte  Ottomane,  ordonnee  par 

Sa  Majeste  Imperiale,  Leopold  I.,  executee  par  Gualtier  de  Leslie, 

Comte  du  S.  Empire.     (1665-66.)     (Rycaut,  tome  ii.) 
Liefrinck  (F.  A.) :  Bijdrage  tot  de  kennis  van  het  eiland  Bah.     (Ts.  ind. 

t.- 1.-  vk.     Deel  xxxiii.     1890.)  .   . 

Littmann  (Enno) :    Bemerkungen   iiber  den  Islam  in   Nordabessimen. 

(Der  Islam,  vol.  i.     Strassburg,  19 10.) 
Low  (Col.  James) :  A  Translation  of  the  Keddah  Annals.    (Journal  of  the 

Indian  Archipelago  and  Eastern  Asia.     Singapore,  1849.) 
Luca  (Jean  de) :  Relations  des  Tartares.     (Thevenot.) 
Ludolf  de  Suchem  :  Ludolphi,  Rectoris  Ecclesiae  Parochiahs  in  Suchem, 

de   Itinere  Terrae  Sanctae   Liber,  herausgegeben  von    F.  Deycks. 

(Stuttgart,  1 85 1.) 
Luttke  (Moritz)  :  (1)  Aegyptens  neue  Zeit.     (Leipzig,  1873.) 

(2)  Der  Islam  und  seine  Volker.     (Gutersloh,  1878.) 


TITLES  OF  WORKS   CITED  449 

Luitprandi  (Pseudo-)  Chronicon.     (Migne,  Patr.  Lat.  torn,  cxxxvi.) 

Lyall  (Sir  Alfred  C):  Asiatic  Studies.     (London,  1882.) 

MSOS  :    Mittheilungen     des    Seminars    fur    Orientalische    Sprachen. 

Berlin. 
Macarius  (Patriarch  of  Antioch) :  Travels  of,   from  the  Arabic  of  the 

Archdeacon  Paul,  translated  by  F.  C.  Belfour.     (London,  1829-34.) 
Mackenzie  (G.  Muir)  and  Irby  (A.  P.) :  Travels  in  the  Slavonic  Provinces 

of  Turkey-in-Europe.     (London,  1867.) 
Mackenzie     (K.    R.     H.)  :      Schamyl    and     Circassia.       Chiefly    from 

materials  collected  by  Dr.  Friedrich  Wagner,  edited  by.     (London, 

1854.) 
McNair  (¥.):  Perak  and  the  Malays.     (London,  1878.) 
Mahbub     al-M  anbijl :      Agapius     Episcopus     Mabbugensis,    Historia 
Universalis,  ed.  P.  L.  Cheikho.     (Corpus  Scriptorum  Christianorum 
Orientalium.     Scriptores  Arabici.     Ser.  iii.,  torn.  v.     Beryti,  1912.) 
Makln  :    Historia  Saracenica,  arabice  olim  exarata  a  Georgio   Elma- 
cino  et  latine  reddita  opera  Thomae  Erpenii.     (Lugduni  Batavorum, 
1625.) 
Makkarl  :  The  History  of  the  Mohammedan    Dynasties  of  Spam,  by 
Ahmed    ibn    Mohammed   Al- Makkarl,    translated    by    Pascual    de 
Gayangos.     (London,  1840-43.) 
Maqrizl  :  (1)  A  short  history  of  the  Copts,  translated  from  the  Arabic 

by  S.  C.  Malan.     (London,  1873.) 
(2)  Histoire  des  Sultans  Mamlouks  de  l'Egypte,  traduite  par 
M.  Ouatremere.     (Paris,  1837-45.) 
Mdrl  b.  Sulayman  :  Maris,  Amri  et  Slibae  De  Patriarchis  Nestorianorum 
Commentaria,  ed.  Henricus  Gismondi.    Pars  Prior.    (Romae,  1899.) 
Marsden  (William):  History  of  Sumatra.     (London,  181 1.) 
Marsigli  (L.  F.)  :  Stato  Militare  dell' Imperio  Ottomanno.  (Amsterdam, 

Mas  Latrie  (J.  M.  J.  L.  de)  :   (1)   Histoire  de  l'ile  de  Chypre  sous  le  regne 

des  princes  de  la  maison  de  Lusignan. 
(Paris,  1S52-61.) 
(2)  Relations  et  commerce  de  l'Afrique 
septentrionale  avec  les  nations 
chretiennes  au  moyen  age.  (Paris, 
1886.) 
Massaja  (Guglielmo) :    I  miei  trentacinque  anni  di  missione  nelP  Alta 

Etiopia.     (Roma,  1885-93.) 
Massimiliano  Transilvano :  Epistola  di,  della  ammirabile  et  stupenda 
nauvigatione  fatta  per  gli   Spagnuoli  lo^anno  MDXIX.  attorno  ll 
mondo.     (Ramusio,  torn,  i.)  _  . 

Mas'udi  :  Les  Prairies  d'Or.     Texte  et  traduction  par  C.  Barbier  de  Mey- 

nard  et  Pavet  de  Courteille.     (Paris,  1861-77.) 
Med.  Ned.  Zendelinggen  :  Mededeelingen  van  wege  het  Nederlandscne 

Zendelinggenootschap.     (Rotterdam.) 
Menavino  (G.  A.) :  Vita  et  Legge  Turchesca.     (Venice,  1573.) 
Menzel  (Theodor) :  Das  Korpsder  Janitscharen.   (Beitrage  zur  kenntnis 
des    Orients.     Band    i.    Jahrbuch    der    Munchner    Onentahschen 
Gesellschaft,  1902-3.     Berlin.) 
Merensky  (A.) :   Mohammedanismus  und  Chnstentum  in  Kampfe  urn  die 
Negerlknder  Afrikas.     (Allgemeine  Missions-Zeitschnft,  Band  xxi. 

Meth^d^ofti'issmn  Work  among  Moslems,  Being  those  Papers  read  at 
the  First  Missionary  Conference  on  behalf  of  the  Mohammedon 
World  held  at  Cairo  April  4th-9th,  1906,  and  the  discussions 
thereon,  which  by  order  of  the  Conference  were  not  to  be  issued  to 

GG 


450  TITLES   OF  WORKS  CITED 

the  public,  but  were  to  be  privately  printed  for  the  use  of  missionaries 
and  the  friends  of  missions.     (New  York,  etc.,  1906.) 
Metzger  (E.) :   Die  Baduwis  auf  Java.  (Globus,  Band  xliii.   Braunschweig, 

1883.) 
Meyer    (P.     C.)  :    Erforschungsgeschichte    und    Staatenbildungen    des 

Westsudan.     (Erganzungsheft    No.    121     zu    "  Petermanns    Mitteil- 

ungen.")     (Gotha,  1897.) 
Michael  the  Elder  :  Chronique  de  Michael  le  Syrien,  patriarche  Jacobite 

d'Antioche  (1166-1199),  editee  .  .  .  par  J.  B.  Chabot.     (Paris,  1899- 

1901.) 
Migne,  Pair.  Gr.  :  Patrologia  Graeca.      (Paris,  1857-66.) 

„     Pair.  Lat.  :  Patrologia  Latina.     (Paris,  1844-55.) 
Milman  (H.  H.) :  History  of  Latin  Christianity.     (London,  1872.) 
Mischlich  und  Lippert :    Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  Haussastaaten 

von  A.    Mischlich.     Mit    Einleitung   von   Julius    Lippert.     (MSOS 

VI.  (1903),  Abtheilung  III.) 
Mission   d'Ollone  :    Recherches    sur   les    Musulmans    Chinois   par   le 

commandant    D'Ollone,    le    capitaine    De    Fleurelle,    le    capitaine 

Lepage,  le  lieutenant  De  Boyve.     Etudes  de  A.  Vissiere.     Notes  de 

E.  Blochet  et  de  divers  savants.     (Paris,  191 1.) 
Mohammedan  World  :  The  Mohammedan  World  of  to-day,  being  papers 

read  at  the  First  Missionary  Conference  on  behalf  of  the  Moham- 
medan World  held  at  Cairo,  April  4th~9th,  1906.     (New  York,  etc., 

1906.) 
Monteroy  Vidal  (D.  Jose)  :  Historiadela  Pirateria  Malayo-mahometana 

en  Mindanao,  Jolo  y  Borneo.     (Madrid,  1888.) 
Moor  (J.  H.) :  Notices  of  the  Indian  Archipelago.     (Singapore,  1837.) 
Moore  (Francis) :  Travels  in  the  Inland  Parts  of  Africa.     (The  World 

displayed  ;  or  a  curious  collection  of  voyages  and  travels.     London, 

1760.) 
Morgan  (J.):  Mahometism  explained.     (London,  1723-5.) 
Morie  (L.  J.)  :  Histoire  de  l'Ethiopie.     (Paris,  1904.) 
Moslem  World  (The),  a  quarterly  review  of  current  events,  literature,  and 

thought  among  Mohammedans,  and  the  progress  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions in  Moslem  lands.     (London,  191 1-     .) 
Muller  (August)  :    Der    Islam   im    Morgen-    und   Abendland.     (Berlin, 

1885-7.) 
Muller  (G.  F.) :  Sammlung  Russischer  Geschichte.    (St.  Petersburg,  1761.) 
Muhammad  b.  iUthman  al-Hasha'ishi  :  Voyage  au  pays  des  Senoussia, 

par  le  cheikh  Mohammed  ben  Otsmane  el-Hachaichi,  traduit  par  V. 

Serres  et  Lasram.     (Paris,  1903.) 
Muhammad  Haydar  :  The  Tarikh-i-Rashidi  of  Mirza  Muhammad  Hai- 

dar,  Dughlat.     An  English  version,  .  .  .  by  N.  Elias  and  E.  Denison 

Ross.     (London,  1895). 
Muir  (Sir  William)  :  (1)  The  Caliphate  ;  its  rise,  decline  and  fall.    (Lon- 
don, 1891.) 
(2)  Life  of  Mahomet.     (London,  1858-61.) 
Munzinger  (Werner) :  Abessinien.     (Petermann's  Mittheilungen.     Gotha, 

1867.) 
Narshakhi :    Description    de    Boukhara    par    Mohammed    Nerchakhy, 

publie  par  Charles  Schefer.     (Paris,  1892.) 
Neander  (A.)  :  (1)  General  History  of  the  Christian  Religion  and  Church. 

(London,  185 1-8.) 
(2)  Memorials  of  Christian  Life.     (London,  1852.) 
Netscher  (E.) :    Kronijk   van    Sambas    en   van    Soekadana.     (Ts.    ind. 
t.- 1.-  vk.    Deel  i.  1852,) 


TITLES   OF  WORKS   CITED  451 

Newbold  (T.  J.)  :  Political  and  Statistical  Account  of  the  British  Settle- 
ments in  the  Straits  of  Malacca.     (London,  1839.) 
Nicholson  (Reynold  A.)  :  A  Literary  History  of  the  Arabs.    (London,  1907.) 
Niemann  (G.  K.) :  Inleiding  tot  de  kennis  van  den  Islam.     (Rotterdam, 

1861.) 
Ohsson  (C.  d')  :  Histoire  des  Mongols.     (The  Hague,  1834-5.) 
Ohsson  (M.  d')  :  Tableau  general  de  PEmpire  Othoman.      (Paris,  1820.) 
Olivier  (L.)  :  La  Bosnie  et  l'Herze'govine,  ouvrage  publie  sous  la  direction 

de  Louis  Olivier.     (Paris,  n.d.) 
Oppel  (A.)  :    Die   religiose   Verhaltnisse   von  Afrika.      (Zeitschrift   der 

Gesellschaft  fur  Erdkunde  zu  Berlin.     Vol.  xxii.     1887.) 
Orderici     Vitalis    Historia    Ecclesiastica.       (Migne,    Patr.    Lat.    torn. 

clxxxviii.) 
Palmer  (H.  R.)  :  The  Kano  Chronicle,  translated  with  an  introduction. 

(Journal  of  the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute.    Vol.  xxxviii.    1908.) 
Palmieri  (Aurelio)  :  Die  Polemik  des   Islam.      Aus   dem    Italienischen 

iibersetzt  von  Prof.  Valentin  Holzer.     (Salzburg,  1902.) 
Panciera  (B.)  :  I  Musulmani.     (Florence,  1877.) 
Pashley  (Robert)  :  Travels  in  Crete.     (London,  1837.) 
Paulitschke  (Philipp) :    Harar.    Forschungsreise   nach   den    Somal-  und 

Galla-landern  Ost-Afrikas.     (Leipzig,  1888.) 
Pavy  :  CEuvres  de  Mgr.  L.-  A.-  A.  Pavy,  Eveque  d'Alger.     (Paris,  1858.) 
Perceval  (A.   P.   Caussin  de)  :    Essai    sur   l'histoire   des   Arabes   avant 

l'lslamisme,  pendant  l'epoque  de  Mahomet,  et  jusqu'a  la  reduction 

de  toutes  les  tribus  sous  la  loi  musulmane.     (Paris,  1847-8.) 
Perrot  (Georges)  :  L'ile  de  Crete.     (Paris,  1867.) 
Phrantzes  (Georgios)  :  Annales,  ed.  B.  G.  Niebuhr.     (Bonnae,  1838.) 
Pichler  (A.)  :    Geschichte    der    Protestantismus    in    der    orientalischen 

Kirche  im  17.   Jahrhundert,  oder  Der  Patriarch  Cyrillus  Lucaris  und 

seine  Zeit.     (Munich,  1862.) 
Pigafetta  (M.  Antonio)  :  Viaggio  atorno  il  mondo  fatto  et  descntto  per. 

(Ramusio,  Tom.  i.) 
Pitzipios  (J.  G.)  :  L'Eglise  orientale.     (Rome,  1855.) 
Plowden  (W.  C.)  :  Travels  in  Abyssinia  and  the  Galla  Country.     (London, 

1868.)  ,      , 

Poensen  (C.)  :  Brieven  over  den  Islam  uit  de  Binnenlanden  van  Java. 

(Leiden,  1886.) 
Polo  (Marco)  :  The  Book  of  Ser  Marco  Polo,  the  Venetian,  concerning 
the  Kingdoms  and  Marvels  of  the  East,  translated  and  edited  by  Sir 
Henry  Yule.     Third  Edition,  revised  by  Henri  Cordier.     (London, 

Prutz  (H.)  :  Kulturgeschichte  der  Kreuzziige.     (Berlin,  1883.) 

R.  du  MM.  :  Revue  du  Monde  Musulman,  publie  par  la  Mission  Scien- 

tifique  du  Maroc.  (Paris.)  . 

Rabbath  (Antoine)  :  Documents  inedits  pour  servir  a  1  Histoire  du  Chns- 

tianisme  en  Orient.     Tome  premier.     (Pans,  1905.) 
Radlofi  (W.)  :  Aus  Siberien.     (Leipzig,  1884.) 

Raffles  (Thomas  Stamford)  :  The  History  of  Java.     (London,  181/.) 
Ramusio  (G.  B.)  :  Navigationi  et  Viaggi.     (Venice ,  1 559-) 
Rashidal-Din :   Jarni'   al-Tawarlkh.      Tankh-i    Moubaxek-i    Ghazam, 

histoire  des  Mongols,  editee  par  E.  Blochet.     (Gibb  Memorial  Series, 

vol.  xviii.)     (London,  191 1.)  .  , 

Raver  y :  Tabakat-i-Nasirl :  a  general    history  of   the    M<«amma<fcui 

Dynasties  of  Asia,by  Minhaj-ud-DIn,  Abu-'Umar-i-'Usman.  (London, 

Reade  (W.  Winwood)  :  African  Sketch  Book.     (London,  1873.) 
GG  2 


452  TITLES   OF  WORKS  CITED 

Rectus  (Elise^e)  :  Nouvelle  Geographie  Universelle.     (Paris,  1876-91.) 

Reinaud,  see  AbuH-Fidd. 

Renaudot  (E.)  :    Historia   Patriarcharum  Alexandrinorum  Jacobitarum. 

(Paris,  17 13.) 

Report  of  Centenary  Conference  on  the  Protestant  Missions  of  the  World, 

held  in  London,  1888,  edited  by  Rev.  J.  J.  Johnston.    (London,  1889.) 

Rev.  col.  int.  :  Revue  Coloniale  Internationale.     (Amsterdam.) 

Richter  (J.)  :  Die  Propaganda  des  Islam  als  Wegbestreiterin  der  modernen 

Mission.     (Missionswissenschaftliche  Studien.      Festschrift  zum  70. 

Geburtstag  des  Herrn  Prof.  Dr.  Gustav  Warneck.)     (Berlin,   1904.) 

Riedel  (J.  G.  F.)  :  (1)  De  Sluik-en  Kroesharige  Rassen  tusschen  Selebes 

en  Papua.     (The  Hague,  1886.) 
(2)  The  Island  of  Flores  or  Pulan  Bunga.     The  Tribes 
between    Sika   and    Manggaraai.      (Rev.  col.   int., 
tome  ii.     1886.) 
Rinn  (Louis)  :  Marabouts  et  Khouan.     (Algiers,  1884.) 
Roscoe  (John)  :  The  Baganda.     (London,  191 1.) 

Ross  (Alexander)  :  A  Needful  Caveat,  or  Admonition,  for  them  who 
desire  to  know  what  Use  may  be  made  of,  or  if  there  be  danger  in 
Reading  the  Alcoran.  (The  Alcoran  of  Mahomet,  translated  out  of 
Arabick  into  French,  by  Sieur  de  Ryer,  ....  and  newly  Englished, 
for  the  satisfaction  of  all  that  desire  to  look  into  the  Turkish  Vanities.) 
(London,  1688.) 
Roufjaer  (G.  P.)  :  Het  tijdperk  van  godsdienstovergang  (1400-1600)  in 

den  Maleischen  Archipel.     (Bijdr.  t.d.t.l.  en  vlk.,  dl.  50.)    (1899.) 
Rubruck  :  The  Journey  of  William  of  Rubruck  to  the  Eastern  Parts  of 
the  World,  1253-55,  as  narrated  by  himself.     Translated  ....  by 
William    Woodville    Rockhill.     (Hakluyt  Society.      Second    Series. 
No.  iv.)     (London,  1900.) 
Ruppell  (Eduard)  :  Reise  in  Abyssinien.     (Frankfurt  am  Main,  1838.) 
Rycaut  (Sir  Paul)  :  Histoire  de  l'etat  present  de  l'empire  ottoman,  traduit 
de  PAnglais  de  Monsieur  Ricaut,  par  M.  Briot.     (Amsterdam,  1672.) 
Sachau  (Eduard)  :  Tiber  den  zweiten  Chalifen  Omar.     Ein  Charakter- 
bild  aus  der  altesten  Geschichte  des  Islams.     (Sitzungsberichte  der 
Kbniglichen  Preussischen   Akademie  der  Wissenschaften.      Berlin, 
1902.) 
Sacy  (Le  Bon  Silvestre  de)  :  Expose  de  la  Religion  des  Druzes.     (Paris, 

l838-) 
§alibd  b.  Yuhanna  :  Maris,  Amri  et  Slibae  De  Patriarchis  Nestorianorum 

Commentaria,  ed.  Henricus  Gismondi.    Pars  Altera.     (Romae,  1896.) 
Salmon  (C.  S.)  :  British  Policy  in  West  Africa.    (Contemporary  Review, 

1882.) 
Samson  :  Samsonis  Abbatis  Cordubensis  Apologeticus  Liber.    (Henrique 

Florez  :  Espaiia  Sagrada,  torn,  xi.)     (Madrid,  1747-74.) 
Sansovino  (Francesco)  :  Historia  Universale  dell'  Origine  et  Imperio  de' 

Turchi.     (Venice,  1573.) 
Sayyid  lAli  Akbar  :  Trois  chapitres  du  Khitay  Nameh.     Texte  persan 

et  traduction  francaise  par  Charles  Schefer.     (Melanges  Orientaux. 

Publications  de  l'Ecole  des  Langues  Orientales  Vivantes.     IP  serie. 

Vol.  ix.     Paris,  1883.) 
Schack  (A.  F.  Graf  von)  :  Poesie  und  Kunst  der  Araber  in  Spanien  und 

Sicilien.     (Stuttgart,  1877.) 
Schefer  (C.)  :  Notice  sur  les  relations  des  peuples  musulmans  avec  les 

Chinois,    depuis  l'extension  de   PIslamisme  jusqu'a   la  fin   de   XVe 

siecle.      (Centenaire   de   TEcole  des  Langues  Orientales  Vivantes, 
1795-1895.     Recueil  de   Memoires  publies  par  les   Professeurs  de 

l'Ecole.     Paris,  1895.) 


TITLES   OF  WORKS   CITED  453 

Scheffter  (Johannes)  :  Tiircken-Schrifft :  von  den  Ursachen  der  Turck- 

ischen    Ueberziehung    und    der    Zertretung    des    Volckes    Gottes. 

(1664.) 
Schiltberger  (Hans)  :    Reisebuch,   herausgegeben   von  V.   Langmantel. 

(Tubingen,  1885.) 
Semper  (C.)  :  Die  Philippinen  und  ihre  Bewohner.     (Wiirzburg,  1869.) 
Severus:  Severus  ben  el  Moqaffa',  Historia  Patriarcharum  Alexandrin- 

orum,   ed.    C.    F.    Seybold.       (Corpus    Scriptorum    Christianorum 

Orientalium.      Scriptores   Arabici.      Ser.    iii.    Tom.   ix.)       (Beryti, 

1904-         .) 
Shedd  (W.  A.)  :  Islam  and  the  Oriental  Churches.     (Philadelphia,  1904.) 
Silbemagl  (Isidor)  :  Verfassung  und  gegenwartiger  Bestand  samtlicher 

Kirchen  des  Orients.     2te  Auflage.     (Regensburg,  1904.) 
Simon  (G.)  :  Islam  und  Christentum  im  Kampf  urn  die  Eroberung  der 

animistischen  Heidenwelt.     Beobachtungen    aus    der    Mohammed- 

anermission  in  Niederlandisch-Indien.     (Berlin,  1910.) 
Sitz.  d.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.,  Philos.-hist.  CI.  :  Sitzungberichte  der  philoso- 

phisch-historischen  Classe  der  kaiserlichen  Akademie   der  Wissen- 

schaften.     (Vienna.) 
Smith  (Thomas):  Remarks  upon  the  Manners,  Religion  and  Government 

of  the  Turks.     (London,  1678.) 
Smith  (W.  J.)  :  The   Present  Phases   of  the   Mohammedan    Question. 

(The  Churchman.     London,  Jan.,  1888.) 
Spons  (Jacob)  :  Reisen  durch  Italien,  Dalmatien,  Griechenland  und  die 

Morgenlander.     (Nurnberg,  17 13.) 
Sprenger  (A.)  :  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehredes  Mohammad.    (Berlin,  1861.) 
Steinschneider    (Moritz)  :  Polemische  und   apologetische    Litteratur   in 

arabischer    Sprache,    zwischen    Muslimen,     Christen    und     Juden. 

(Leipzig,  1877.) 
Stirling-Maxwell  (Sir  William)  :  Don  John  of  Austria.     (London,  1883.) 
Tabarl :   Annales  quos  scripsit  Abu  Djafar  Mohammed  ibn  Djarir  At- 

Tabari,  ed.  M.  J.  de  Goeje  et  alii.     (Leiden,  1885-93.) 
Tarikh  al-Sudan  :  Tarikh  es-Soudan  par  Abderrahman  ben  Abdallah 

ben  'Imran  ben  'Amir  es-Sa'di.     Texte  arabe  edite  par  O.  Houdas. 

(Paris,  1898.) 
Tavernier  (J.  B.)  (1)  The  six  voyages.     (London,  1677.) 

(2)  Travels  in  India.     (London,  1678.) 

(3)  A  New  Relation  of  the  Inner-Part  of  the  Grand 

Seignor's  Seraglio.     (London,  1677.) 
Thevenot  (M.)  :  Relations  de  divers  voyages  curieux.     (Paris,  1696.) 
Thiersant  (P.  Dabry  de)  :  Le  Mahometisme  en  Chine.     (Fans,  1878.) 
Thomas  of  Margd  :  The  Book  of  Governors  :    the  Historia  Monastica 
of  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Marga  A.D.  840,  edited  by  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge. 

(London,  1893.) 
Thomson  (Joseph)  :   (1)   Mohammedanism  in  Central  Africa.     (Contem- 
porary Review,  Dec,  1886.) 
(2)   Note   on   the   African   Tribes    of    the    British 
Empire.     (The  Journal  of  the  Anthropological 
Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.     Vol. 
xvi.     London,  1887.) 
Tijanl  :  Voyage    du    Scheikh   Et-Tidjani    dans   la   regence   de    Tunis, 
pendant  les  annees  706,  707,  et  708  de  l'hegire  (1306-1309)  ;  traduit 
de  l'arabe  par  M.  Alphonse  Rousseau.     (J.  A.  iv™  serie,  tome  xx., 

Tournefort  (J.P.)  :  A  Voyage  into  the  Levant.     (London    1741.) 
Ts.  ind.  L-  /.-  vk.  :  Tijdschrift  voor  Indische  Taal-,  Land-  en  Volken- 
kunde.     (Batavia.) 


454  TITLES  OF  WORKS  CITED 

Turchicae  Spurcitiae  et  Perfidiae  Suggillatio  et  Confutatio.     (Paris,  1516.) 

'Ubayd  Allah  :  Tuhfat  al-Hind.     (Dihll,  a.h.  1309.) 

Usfcna  b.  Munqidh  :  Kitab  al-  I'tibar,  ed.  H.  Derenbourg.  ii.me  Partie  : 
Texte  arabe  de  l'autobiographie  d'Ousama.  (Publications  del'fecole 
des  Langues  Orientales  Vivantes.  iime  ser.,  tome,  xii  (iime  Partie). 
(Paris,  1886.) 

Vambery  (Arminius)  :   (1)  Geschichte  Bochara's.     (Stuttgart,  1872.) 
„  „  (2)   Sketches  of  Central  Asia.     (London,  1868.) 

Vasil'ev  (V.  P.)  :  0  ^BittKemii  MaroMeTaHCTBa  bt>  KiiTau.  (St.  Peters- 
burg, 1867.) 

Veniero ;  Descrittione  dell5  Imperio  Turchesco  del  Revermo  Monsre 
Maffeo  Veniero,  Arcivescovo  di  Corfu.  (R.  D.  Marci  Bibliotheca, 
Venice.     Classe  vii.,  Cod.  882.) 

Verh.  Bat.  Gen.  van  K.  en  W.  :  Verhandelingen  van  het  Bataviaasch 
Genootschap  van  Kunsten  en  Wetenschappen.     (Batavia.) 

Veth  (P.  T.)  :   (1)  Atchin  en  zijne  betrekkingen  tot  Nederland.     (Leiden, 

1873.) 

(2)  Borneo's  Wester- Afdeeling.     (Zaltbommel,  1854.) 

(3)  Java,  geographisch,  ethnologisch,  historisch.     Tweede 

Druk  bewerkt  door  J.  F.  Snelleman  en  J.  F.  Nier- 
meyer.     (Haarlem,   1896-1907.) 
Vivien  de  Saint-Martin  (L.)  :  Nouveau    Dictionnaire   de    Geographie 

Universelle.     (Paris,  1879—95.) 
WZKM  :  Wiener  Zeitschrift  fur  die  Kunde  des  Morgenlandes. 
Waitz  (Theodor)  :  Anthropologic  der  Naturvolker.     (Leipzig,  i860.) 
Wansleben  (J.  M.)  :  Histoire  de  l'eglise  d'Alexandie.     (Paris,  1677.) 
Wass&f  :  Geschichte  ;  persisch  herausgegeben  und  deutsch  ubersetzt  von 

Hammer-Purgstall.     (Vienna,  1856.) 
Weil  (Gustav)  :  Geschichte  der  Chalifen.     (Mannheim,  1846-51.) 
Wellhausen  (J.)  :  Skizzen  und  Vorarbeiten.     (Berlin,  1885-99.) 
Westermann  (D.) :  Islam  in  the  West  and  Central  Sudan.     (The  Inter- 
national Review  of  Missions,  vol.  i.     Edinburgh,  1912.) 
Wetzer  und   Welte's   Kirchenlexicon.     Zweite   Auflage.     (Freiburg   im 

Breisgau,  1885  sqq.) 
Whishaw  (B.  and  E.  M.)  :  Arabic  Spain.     (London,  191 2.) 
Wilken  (N.  P.)  en       (1)  Gedachten  over  het  stichten  einer  zending  in 
Schwarz  (J.  A.)  Bolaang-Mongondou.      (Med.     Ned.     Zen- 

delinggen.     Vol.  xi.,  1867.) 
(2)  Het    Heidendom  en   de    Islam   in    Bolaang- 
Mongondou.     (id.  id.) 
Wise  (James)  :  The   Muhammadans  of  Eastern  Bengal.     (J.  A.  S.  B. 

Vol.  lxiii.,  Part  iii.,  1894.) 
Wright  (William)  :  A  short  History  of  Syriac  Literature.     (London,  1894.) 
Wustenfeld  (F.) :  Die  Geschichtschreiber  der  Araber  und  ihre  Werke. 

(Gottingen,  1882.) 
Yahyd  b.  Adam  :  Le  livre  de  lTmpot  Foncier,  publie  par  Th.  W.  Juyn- 

'boll.     (Leide,  1896.) 
Yaqut :     Mu'jam     al-Buldan.       Jacut's    Geographisches    Worterbuch, 

herausgegeben  von  F.  Wustenfeld.     (Leipzig,  1866-73.) 
Yule  (H.)  :  Cathay  and  the  Way  thither.     (London,  1866.) 
ZDMG  :    Zeitschrift    der    deutschen    morgenlandischen    Gesellschaft. 

(Leipzig.) 
Zayn  al-Din :    Tuhfah   al-mujahidln.      Historia   dos    Portugueses   no 

Malabar  por  Zinadim.     Manuscripto  Arabe  publicado  e  traduzido 

por  David  Lopes.     (Lisboa,  1898.) 
Zenker  (J.  T.) :  Das  chinesische  Reich,  nach  dem  tiirkischen  Khatainame. 

(Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  xv.     Leipzig,  1861.) 


TITLES   OF  WORKS   CITED  455 

Zmaievich  :  Notizie  universali  dello  stato  di  Albania  e  dell'  operato  da 

Monsig.  Vincenzo   Zmaievich,  arcivescovo   di    Antivari,    esaminate 

nelle  Congregationi  Generali  di  Propaganda  Fide  di  3  Debr.  1703-12 

Febr.  1704.     (Bibliotheca    Barberina,  Rome,  Nr  L.  126.) 

Zollinger  (H.) :   (1)  The    Island    of   Lombok.     Journal   of    the    Indian 

Archipelago,  vol.  v.     (Singapore,  1851.) 
(2)    Verslag  van  eene  reis  naar  Bima  en   Soembawa. 
(Verh.    Bat.    Gen.   van    K.  en    W.      Deel   xxiii. 
1850.) 
Zwemer  (S.  M.) :  Islam  :  A  Challenge  to  faith.     (New  York,  1908.) 


INDEX. 


Aaron,  Jacobite  Bishop,  87 

Abaqa.  Khan,  229 

'Abd  al-'Aziz  b.  Marwan,  governor 

of  Egypt,  63,  66 
'Abd    al-Karim,     founder    of    the 

kingdom  of  Wadai,  322 
'Abd  al-Malik,  caliph,   63,   66,   81, 

3X3 
'Abd   al-Masih   b.    Ishaq   al-Kindi, 

84-5,  428 

'Abd  al-Qadir  al-Jilanl,    271,    274, 

328,  329 
'Abd  al-Rahim  b.  'All,  on  forcible 

conversion  to  Islam,  421 
'Abd     al-Rahman,     head     of     the 

Imperial  finances  in  China,  297 
'Abd  al-Rahman  al-Samiri,  reputed 

Hindu  king,  265 
'Abd   Allah,   first   Muslim  king  of 

Baghirmi,  322 
'Abd  Allah  b.   Isma'il  al-Hashimi, 

letter  to  al-Kindi,  84-5,  428-35 
'Abd  Allah  b.  Mas'ud,  15 
'Abd  Allah  b.  Maymiin,  211,  213 
'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasin,  331 
Abkhazes,  10 1 
Abu  Bakr,  caliph,  12,  45 
Abu'l-Faraj  b.  al-Jawzi,  75 
Abu'l-Hasan     Mihyar,     converted, 

210 
Abu     Nuh     al-Anbarl,     Christian 

secretary,  64 
Abu  Talib,  13-14.  15,  x9 
Abyssinia,  Bilal,  the  first-fruits  of, 

15.  29 
Abyssinia,  flight  to,  15-16 
Abyssinia,  Islam  in,  n  3-21,  410 
Achin.     See  Atjeh 
Adal,  Muhammadan  Kingdom,  114, 

115 
Adamaua,  325 

Ad  ,  island,  404 

Adoptionism,  in  Spain,  139 

Adrianople,   159 

Afghans,  conversion  to  Islam,  217; 
in  Bengal,  279 

Africa,  Church  of  North,  12 1-7, 
129-30;  Islam  in,  102-30,  312- 
62;  Partition  of,  facilitates 
spread  of  Islam,  333,  34°.  345"6> 
361-2 


Ahl  al-Kitab,  207 

Ahmad,  Tunjar  Arab  in  Darfur,  322 

Ahmad  b.  Idris,  327 

Ahmad  Gra.fi,  113,  115-116 

Ahmad  Mujaddid,  412 

Ahmad  Shanurazah,  first  Muham- 
madan king  of  the  Maldivc 
Islands,  270 

Ahmad  Takiidar.     See  Takiidar 

Ahmadu   Shaykhu.    330 

Akbar,  259,  262,  292 

Akhtal,  court  poet,  63 

Albanians,  62,   177-92 

Alfurs,  390,  393 

*A1I  b.  Abi  Talib,  12,  13 

'AH  Mughayat  Shah,  king  of  Atjeh, 

367 
Almohad  dynasty,  316,  421 

Almoravid    dynasty,     142-3,     314, 

316,  317 
Alvar,  138,  142 
Amboina,  389 
Amirghaniyyah  order,   327 
Amiroutzes,  George,   160 
Ampel,  in  Java,  381,  383,  384 
Ananda,   viceroy  of    Kan-su,    227, 

239 
Anjumans  in  India,  286,  439 

Antivari,   177,   180,   187,   188,   189, 

191 
Arab  conquest  of  Byzantine  empire, 

54-6;  of  Egypt,    102;   of  North 

Africa,   121,   125-16,    512-13;  of 

Persia,  47-8 
Arab    conquests,    not    missionary, 

45-7  .      .  . ..   . 

Arab  society  in  the  time  of  Muham- 
mad, 31-2,  42-3 

Arab  traders,  as  proselytisers,  353 
sq.     See  also  Merchants 

Arab  tribes,  conversion  of,  32-3,  35- 

41  c 

Arabic    language,    adoption    ot,    a 

possible    aid    to    the    spread    of 

Islam,  73,   137-9 
Arabs,     Christian,     converted     to 

Islam,  47-5° 
Arabs,  in  Africa  :— Abyssinia,  114; 
East  Coast,  340-3 ;    Nubia,    no, 
112;    Somaliland.     350;    Sudan, 
320,321,322,331  ;  Uganda,  344;— 

457  ~ 


458 


INDEX 


in  China,  294-6,  297,  363;  in 
India,  255,  256,  263-6,  269-273; 
in  Indo-China,  376;  in  Malay 
Archipelago,  364-5,  366,  371, 
373.  376,  378,  388,  391,  397-8, 
401,    404;    in   Malay    Peninsula, 

373 
Arghons,  293 

Arghun.    fourth   Ilkhan,    232,    239; 

persecutes  Muhammadans,  226 
Arianism,  in  Spain,  134 
Armatoli,   62 

Armenians,  viii.  n.1,  96-7,  176,  229 
Arslan  Khan  b.  Qadr  Khan,  216 
Aru,  in  Sumatra,  367,  368 
Arya  Damar,  380,  381,  382 
Ashanti,  339 
Assam,  282 
Athanasius,     of     Edessa,     builds 

churches,  63,  66 
Atjeh,  366,  367,  369,  375,  376,  394 
Aurangzeb,  254,  260,  292 
Azhar,  mosque  of  al-,  328,  355 

Baduwis,  in  Java,  386 

Ba'eda  Maryam,  king  of  Abyssinia, 

114 
Baele  tribe,  335 

Baganda,  Islam  among  the,  344 
Baghirmi,  322-3 
Bakhtiyar  Khilji,  277 
Balambangan,    kingdom    in    Java, 

382 
Balasaghun,  216 
Bali,  island,  384,  404 
Balinese,  in  Lombok,  398-9 
Baliyyun,  113 
Baltistan,  292-3 
Bambara,  321 
Bangalore,   285 
Banjarmasin,   kingdom  in  Borneo, 

390-I 
Bantam,  in  Java,  385,  386 
Banu  Ghassan,  47,  52 
Banu  Namir,  48,  49 
Banu  Taghlib.  49-50 
Banu  Tanukh,  50 
Baptism  of  Muhammadan  children, 

181,  187. 
Baraba  Tatars,  253 
Baraka  Khan.  223,  224,  227-9,  239, 

240 
Bashkirs,   in   Hungary,    193-4;    *n 

Russia,  250 
Bataks,  369-70,  372 
Bayazid,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  193 
Baybars,  Mamluk  Sultan  of  Egypt, 

223,  228,  229 
Baydu  Khan.  232-3 
Belgaum,  271 
Belloos,  112-13 


Bengal,  277-80,  288 

Berberah,  350 

Berbers,  Christianity  among,   122 ; 

Islam   among,     312-16;     in    the 

Sudan,  317,  321 
Bilal,  14-15,  29 
Bintara,  in  Java,  383 
Bishnois,  Hindu  sect,  263 
Bizzi,  Marco,  in  Albania,  180-3 
Bodh  Mai,  Raja  of  Majhauli,  262 
Bogomiles,  198-200 
Bohra  sect,  275-7 
Bolaang-Mongondou,     in     Celebes, 

396-8 
Borneo,  390-2 
Bornu,  320  n.5,  322,  355 
Borun  tribe,  411 
Bosnia,  168,  198-201 
Brahmanabad,  272 
Brunai,  in  Borneo,  391 
Buckle,    on    Muslim    missionaries, 

4°5 
Buddhism  in  conflict  with  Islam, 

220,  225,  227 
Buddhists,  converted  to  Islam,  227, 

233,  293,  376,  421 
Bugis,  in  Borneo,  392 ;    in  Celebes, 

393,    395-6,    397J     in    Lombok, 

398 
Bukam,  a  wealthy  Christian,  builds 

churches,  67 
Bukhara,  conquered  by  Arabs,  213  ; 

sacked    by    the    Mongols,    218; 

Saljuqs  accept  Islam  here,  216 
Bulandshahr,  257,  260 
Bulgarians,  242-3 
Buraq  Khan.  235 
Byzantine  government,  53-5,  72-3  ; 

in    Africa,     104,     106,     124;     in 

Greece,  147-8. 

Calvinism  and  Islam,  155,  162-3 

Cambodia,  296  n.3 

Canton,  296 

Cape  Colony,  3,  350-2 

Capitation-tax     in     Albania,     182, 

189;      in     Turkey,     152-4.     See 

Jizyah 
Catherine  II,  247 
Celebes,  392-8 
Ceram,  404 

Ceylon,  Islam  in,  266  n.2 
Chaghatay.  234 
Chalcedon,  Council  of,  53,  102 
Champa,  380 
Chams,  296  w.3 
Charlemagne,  7,  136,  139 
Cheribon,  380,  385 
Cherimiss,  250-1 
Chermen,  378 
Cherumans,  268 


INDEX 


459 


China,  Islam  in,  227,  294-311 

Chinese,  in  Borneo,  392 ;  in  Java, 
379;    in  Mindanao,  401  n2 

Chingiz  Khan,  218,  220,  225,  301 

Chittagong,  278 

Christian  Arabs,  converted  to 
Islam,  47-50;  in  alliance  with 
Muslim  Arabs,  47-9,  62 ;  in 
modern   times,    52 ;     persecuted, 

50 

Christian  clergy  converted  to  Islam, 
84,  86-7;  in  Abyssinia,  115;  in 
Egypt,  92;  in  Spain,  134;  in 
Turkey,  159,  165,  166,  168  n2, 
169 

Christian  heresies  as  predisposing 
to  conversion  to  Islam,  105,  134, 
161,  199-200 

Christian  officials  employed  by 
Muhammadan  governments,  62- 
4;    in  Egypt,  107;    in  Spain,  135 

Christian  soldiers  in  Muhammadan 
service,  during  the  Crusades,  91, 
96;  in  North  Africa,  129-30; 
in  Spain,  135;  in  Turkey,  62, 
151  n2,  179;  exempted  from  the 
payment  of  capitation-tax,  61-2 

Christianity,  forced  conversion  to. 
See  Conversion,  forced 

Christians  converted  to  Islam,  in 
Borneo,  392  ;  in  Celebes,  396-8  ; 
in  India,  269 ;  in  Sumatra,  370. 
See  also  Christian  clergy 

Christians  prefer  Muslim  to  Chris- 
tian rule,  155-7;  in  Byzantine 
empire,  54-6,  96,  147-8;  in 
Greece  under  Frankish  and 
Venetian  rule,  147;  in  Hungary, 
155;  in  Spain,  132;  in  Servia, 
194-5  ;    in  Transylvania,  155 

Christians  under  Muslim  rule,  con- 
dition of,  49-5°.  52>  54-69,  75- 
84,  95-100,  103-4,  106-9,  121-2, 
125-7,  I29~44,  146-60,  178- 
84,  189,  194-7,  203-5,  207,  422. 
See  also  Dhimmis 

Churches  built  in  Muhammadan 
countries,  57  n.5,  65-8,  100, 
135,  422  n* 

Chuvash,  251 

Circassians,  100-1 

Constantine,  Tsarevitch  of  Kakheth, 
becomes  Muslim,  99 

Controversies  between  Christians 
and  Muslims,  83-5,  108,  226, 
227  n.*,  436-7 

Conversion,  forced,  to  Christianity, 
in  Abyssinia,  114,  116,  119-20; 
in  Amboina,  7-8;  in  Europe, 
7-8,  194;  in  the  Galla  country, 
348  ;  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  401 


Conversion,  forced,  to  Islam,  ab- 
sence of,  vindicated  by  con- 
temporary evidence,  81-2,  157-8, 

173-4 

Conversion,  forced,  to  Islam,  con- 
demned, 5-6,   85  n.\    158,   421-3 

Conversion,  forced,  to  Islam,  in 
Albania,  182,  190;  in  India,  254, 
260-2,  268,  278;  in  Kashmir, 
292;  in  Morocco,  126;  in  Mugha- 
listan,  238;  in  Tunis,  126  n.z; 
^  in  Turkey,  150,  166,  174 

Conversion  of  Muslims  to  Chris- 
tianity, in  Crete,  201 

Copts,  102-9 

Crete,  viii.  n.1,  201-5 

Crimea,  Islam  in  the,  245 

Crusaders,  88-92 

Cutch,  275,  277 

Cyprus,  Copts  in,  accept  Islam, 
108  n.3;  under  Venetian  rule, 
147  n.% 

Daghistan,  100 

Dahanu,  271 

Dahomey,  339 

Damascus,  55,  65 

Danagla  Arabs,  no  n.1 

Daniel,  Bishop  of  Khabur,  87 

Darfur,  322,  354,  355 

Dasavatar,     sacred     book    of    the 

Khojahs,  274 
Day  lam,  210 
Deccan,  merchants  from  the,  in  the 

Malay  Archipelago,  364 
Dhimmis,    57-61,   66,  75-6,    77  n.*, 

83,     207.     See     also     Christians 

under  Muslim  Rule,  Zoroastrians 
Dongola,  no,  327 
Doughty,  quoted,  347,  413,  4l6-x7 
Dudekulas,  267 
Dutch,  in  the  Malay  Archipelago, 

369,  372,  397-8.  4°5-7 
Dutch-speaking  Muslims.    See  Cape 

Colony 

Dyaks,  392 

Egypt,  Christians  under  Muslim 
rule,  102-4,  106-9;  churches 
built,  66-7,  109,  422  11.2 

Egypt,  Jacobite  Christians  of. 
See  Copts 

Felix,  Bishop  of  Urgel,  139 

Fire-temples,  in  Persia,  209-n 

Flruz  Shah  Tughlaq,  25S 

Flores,  396 

Fulbe,  condition  in  eighteenth 
century,  323-4 ;  in  nineteenth 
century,  325;  destroy  Hausa 
records,  319;  missionary  activity, 


460 


INDEX 


333.    353-4;    on    West   Coast   of 

Africa,  340 
Funj,  empire  of  the,  in,  113,  337 
Futah-Jallon,  328,  330 

Gabriel,     Christian     physician     of 

Harun  al-Rashid,  64 
Gabriel,  Metropolitan  of  Fars,  86 
Gallas,  348-9;  in  Abyssinia,  116-17, 

347 
Galley-slaves,  173 

Gennadios,    Patriarch   of   Constan- 
tinople, 146 

George,  Bishop  of  Bahrayn,  86 

Georgians,  97-100,  165  w.'1 

Gerganos,  164 

German  East  Africa,  345-6,  410 

Ghazan.  232-4,  421 

Gilolo,  390 

Giri,  382 

Gold  Coast,  339 

Golden  Horde,  220,  227,  239 

Gowa,  in  Celebes,  393,  395 

Graft.     See  Ahmad  Graft 

Greece,  the  first-fruits  of,  Suhayb, 
26,  29 

Greek  Christians  exempted  from 
payment  of  capitation-tax,  62 

Greek  Church,  attempt  to  Calvinise 
the,  161-4;  under  Byzantine  rule 
in  fifteenth  century,  159;  under 
Turkish  rule  in  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, 167,  169;  in  Bosnia,  168; 
in  Crete,  under  Venetian  rule, 
203  ;  in  Servia,  196 

Greeks,  in  the  Crimea,  245 ;  under 
Turkish  rule,  145-55,  160 

Gresik,  378,  379,  381,  382,  389 

Grodno,  Muslims  in,  3 

Guinea  Coast,  338-9 

Gujarat,  spread  of  Islam  in,  275-7 

Gulbarga,  271 

Hadi,  caliph,  84 

Hafs  b.  al-Walid,  governor  of 
Egypt,  and  the  Christians,  103-4 

Haji  Purwa,  378 

Hajis,  and  missionary  activity,  416; 
in  Africa,  330,  354 ;  in  the  Malay 
Archipelago,  405-6;  in  Java, 
377;  in  Sambavva,  398;  in 
Sumatra,  369,  370,  371 

JTajj  'Umar,  330,  332,  333 

Hakim,  8,  422 

Halemahera,  390 

Harar,  335,  350 

Hardatta,  257 

Harun  al-Rashid,  64,  84 ;  oppresses 
the  Christians,  76;  permits  erec- 
tion of  churches,  67 


Hausas,  319-20,  321,  325;  as 
proselytisers,  320,  333,  339;  on 
West  Coast  of  Africa,  340 

Haydar  'AH,  254,  261,  268 

Hayton,  king  of  Armenia,  221, 
229 

Heraclius,  28,  48,  53-4,  70  n.*,  207 

Hinduism  and  Islam,  in  India, 
254-91 I  in  Java,  384-6 

Hirah,  50 

Hisham,  caliph,  295 

Hottentots,  351 

Hui  Hui,  295 

Hulagu,  221,  228,  229,  240 

Hungary,  Calvinists  of,  155; 
Muslims  in,  160  n.1,  193-4 

Hunyady,  John,  193,  195 

Ibn  Hanbal,  74 

Ibn  Khurdadbih.  211 

Ibn  Tumart,  316 

Ibrahim,    Christian,    in    charge    of 

Bayt  al-Mal,  63 
Ibrahim  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  423 
Idaans,  tribe  in  Borneo,  391-2 
Ijebu  country,  South  Nigeria,  326 
Ilik-Khans.  dynasty,  215,  216 

Ilkhan  dynasty,  223,  226,  229-34 

Ilorin,  325 

India,  212,  254-91,  439;  Islam 
introduced  into  Malay  Archi- 
pelago from,  364 

Indo-China,  Islam  in,  376 

Intolerance  condemned,  209.  See 
also  Forced  conversion,  to  Islam, 
condemned 

Ish5'-yabh  III,  Nestorian  Patriarch, 
81 

Islam,    brotherhood    of,    42-3,    75, 

34°.  356,  357.  4J6 

Islam,  causes  of  spread  of,  413-26; 
in  Africa,  353-8,  362  ;  in  Albania, 

>.  182,  184,  190;  in  Arabia,  35,  41; 
in  Bosnia,  200;  in  Egypt,  94, 
105-6,  108-9;  in  India,  279, 
287-91 ;  in  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago, 365,  400,  405,  407;  in 
Spain,  132;  in  Turkey,  157-8, 
160,  166,  172-5 ;  under  the 
Umayyads  and  'Abbasids,  70—5, 
79  n.1 

Islam,  a  missionary  religion,  1,  11, 
29,  42-4,  409 

Islam,  ritualism  of,  417-19 

Islam,  a  universal  religion,  28-30 

Isma'il  b.  'Abd  Allah,  governor  of 
North  Africa,  314 

Isma'ilian  missionaries,  211-13; 
in  India,  212,  274-6;  in  Kashmir, 
291 

Israel,  Christian  official,  64 


INDEX 


461 


Jacobite  Church,  in  Abyssinia,  113- 
21;    in    Egypt,    69/102-9;     in 
Nubia,     109-13;    in    Persia,   69, 
81-2,  207 ;  recent  statistics,  80 
Jacobus    Manopo,     first    Christian 
king      of      Bolaang-Mongondou, 
396 
Jacobus     Manuel     Manopo,      first 
Muslim    king    of    Bolaang-Mon- 
gondou, 397 
Jaghabub,  334,  335 
Jains  converted  to  Islam,  271 
Jalal  al-DIn  Muhammad  Shah,  king 

of  Bengal,  278 
Jamal  al-Din,  first  Muslim  king  of 

Tidor,  388 
James  II,  king  of  England,  invited 

to  embrace  Islam,  409  n.z 
Janissaries,  corps  of,  150-1,  167 
Jarrah  b.'Abd   Allah,   governor  of 

Khurasan.  83 
Jatmall,  becomes  a  Muhammadan, 

277-8 
Java,  364,  377-87 
Jawej,  Abyssinian  chief,  118 
Jenne,  318 
Jerusalem,  59,  90 

Jews,  attempt  the  conversion  of  the 
Russians,  243 ;  forced  to  become 
Muslims,  421;  in  China,  305;  in 
Medina,  20,  26 ;  in  Spain,  welcome 
Arabs,  132;  Spanish,  take  refuge 
in  Turkey,  156 
Jihad,  in  Africa,  329,  331-3,  353  '.  in 

Sumatra,  372 
Jizyah,  tribute  paid  by  non-Muslim 
subjects,  59-62,  103-4,  115,  207, 
432 ;    paid    also    by    newly-con- 
verted Muslims,  60,  83,  103W.5; 
— exemption    granted    to,    Banu 
Taghlib.      49 ;      newly-converted 
Muslims,    103-4,    258;    Christian 
troops  in  Muslim  service,  61-2  ; — 
rates,   60 ;   in   Jerusalem,   57 ;   in 
Nubia,   no;  in  Spain,  134.     See 
also  Capitation-tax 
John,  king  of  Abyssinia,  119,  120 
Joseph,  Metropolitan  of  Merv,  84, 

86  n.7 
Joshua,  Jacobite  Patriarch,  86  n.6 
Jukun  tribe,  337 
Justinian,  52,  72,  102  n.1,  123 
Justus  Stevenius,  93 

Kabils,  of  Algeria,  127-9 
Kabul,  217 
Kanem,  320 
Kano,  319  m.6,  320 
Kan-su,  302,  306,  309,  310 
Karamurtads,  in  Albania,  192 
Karim  b.  Shahriyar,  210 


Kashgar,  Islam  in,  215,  235,  238 

Kashmir,  291-2 

Kastriota,  George,  177 

Katsena,  320 

Kazaks,  238 

Kazan,  247-9,  252,  411 

Kei  Islands,  404 

Khadijah,  12,  18 

Khalid  al-Qasri,  erects  a  church, 
67 

Khalid  b.  al-Walld,  46;  at  Hlrah, 
50-1 ;  Afghan  legend  concern- 
ing, 217 

Kluraj,  83 

Khazars.  243 

Khiljis,  Islam  under  the,  257-8 

Khiva,  214,  246 

Khojah  sect,  274-5 

Khokand,  246 

Khotan,  216,  238,  296  n.3 

Khurasan,  conversion  of  Christians 
of,  81-2 

K'ien  Lung,  emperor  of  China,  304, 

305 
Kiloa,  340,  342 

Kindi.  See  'Abd  al-Masih  b.  Ishaq 
al-Kindi 

Kirghiz,  238,  245-7,  253 

Kocch  tribe,  converted  to  Islam, 
288 

Kordofan,  320,  327 

Kovno,  Muslims  in,  3 

Kritopoulos,  Metrophanes,  on  tri- 
bute of  Christian  children,  150 
«.2,  151 

Kuchum  Khan,  252 

Kufra,  334  n.z 

Kurguz,  Buddhist  governor  of 
Persia,  becomes  Muslim,  227 

Kuyuk  Khan,  treatment  of  Chris- 
tians, 221,  225;  of  Muham- 
madans,  225-6 

Laccadive  Islands,  270 

Ladakh,  292-3 

Lagos,  340 

Lambri,  in  Sumatra,  368 

Lampong  districts,  371 

Lamtuna  clan,  315,  317 

Lefroy,  Bishop,  on  causes  of  spread 
of  Islam,  414-15;  on  Islam  in 
India,  259;  on  Muslim  public 
prayer,  418  n.2 

Lhasa,  Muhammadans  in,  293 

Liberia,  338 

Lithuania,  Islam  in,  3,  245 

Lohanas,  conversion  of,  274 

Lombok,  398 

Louis  VII.     See  St.  Louis 

Lucaris,  Cyril,  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, 161-4 


462 


INDEX 


Macarius,  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  156 
Macassar,  kingdom  in  Celebes,  393, 

395-6 
Madagascar,  352 
Madayi,  265 
Madura,  382,  404 
Magellan,  387,  388 
Mahdi,  caliph,  50,  67,  78 
Mahdi  Purana,  212 
Mahmud  of  Ghazna,  254,  256,  257 
Maimonides,  Moses,  421 
Majapahit,  379,  380-4,  390,  391  w.4 
Malabar,  261-9,  364,  366  n.K 
Malacca,  372,  401 
Malay    Archipelago,    363-72,   377- 

407 
Malay  Peninsula,  372-6 
Malays,  in  Cape  Colony,  350 
Maldive  Islands,  270 
Malik  al-Zahir,    king  of   Samudra, 

368 
Malik  b.  al-Walid,  Christian  official, 

64 
Ma'mun,  caliph,  reign  of,  78,  84,  85, 
217;  permits  erection  of  churches 
67 ;     interview    with    his    uncle, 
Ibrahim,  358 
Mandingos,     319,     331,     354;      as 
Muslim    missionaries,    319,    321, 
353 ;    on  West  Coast  of  Africa, 
338,340;   still  pagan,  337 
Mangu  Khan.  222 
Manila,  402 

Mansur,  caliph,  75,  296 
Mappillas,  263-4 
Marabouts,  317,  354 
Mark    bar    Qiqi,    Jacobite    Metro- 
politan, 86 
Marriages   of   Christian   women   to 
Muhammadans,  136  n.3,  181,   186 
Martyrs,  Muslim,  14-15,  38,  224 
Marwan,  caliph,  quoted,  8 
Mecca,   Arabs  from,  in  the  Malay 
Archipelago,  367,  375,  391  ;    pil- 
grimage    to,    415-16;     religious 
centre  of    the  Muslim  world,  27. 
See  also  Hajis. 
Medina,  19-26,  31-2,  34-5 
Melle,  319,  321 
Menangkabau,  kingdom  of,  368-9, 

372 
Menelik,     emperor     of     Abyssinia, 

120,  350 
Merats,  287 
Merchants,  Muslim,  as  missionaries, 

409,   419;     among  the  Mongols, 

228;     in   Africa,    118,    320,    333, 

337,  339,  348,  353,  362;  in 
India,  264,  273 ;  in  the  Malay 
Archipelago,  365,  377,  387-8, 
396,  403,  404 ;   in  Siberia,  252 


Merv,  conversion  of  Christians  of, 

81-2 
Metaras,  Nicodemus,  164 
Minahassa,  393 
Mindanao,  399-401 
Ming  dynasty,  299 
Minnat  al-Islam  Sabha,  269 
Mirdites,  62,  179  w.2,  192 
Misool,  island,  402,  403  n3 
Missionaries,   Muslim  : — 

'Abd  Allah,  al-Yamani,  275 

'Abd  Allah,  Shaykh,  373-5 

'Abd  Allah  'Arif,  366 

'Abd  Allah  b.  Yasin,  315 

'Abd  al-Razzaq,  266-7 

Abu     'Abd    Allah    Muhammad 

113-M 

Abu  'Ali  Qalandar,  282 

Abu  Bakr,  401 

Abu  Sayda,  214 

Abu'l-Faraj  b.  al-Jawzi,  75 

Abu'1-Nasr  Samani,  215 

'Amr  b.  Malik,  40 

'Amr  b.  Murrah,  36-7 

'Ayyash  b.  Abi  Rabi'ah,  39 

Baha.  al-Din  Zakariyya,  281 

Baha,  al-Haqq,  281 

Baqa  Husayn  Khan.  283,  439 

Bulbul  Shah,  292 

Burhan  al-Din,   366 

Dahhak  b.  Sufyan,  40 

Danfodio.     See     'Uthman     Dan- 

fodio 
Darvish  Mansur,   100 
Datu  Mulla  Husayn,  388-9 
Dawal  Shah  Pir,  277 
Dimam  b.  Tha'labah,   35-6 
Fakhr  al-Din,  267-8 
Farah  'Ali,   101 
Farid  al-Din,  281 
Haji  Muhammad,  283 
Hakim  Bagus,  397 
Hasan  al-Din,   385 
Hasan  'Ali,  283 
Hasan  b.  'Ali,   210 
Hasan  Kabir  al-Din,  282 
Hashim  Pir  Gujarati,  271 
Ibn   Hanbal,   74 
Ibrahim  Abu  Zarbay,   350 
Imam  Dikir,  404 
Imam  Shah,  277 
Imam  Tuweko,  397 
Ishaq,   382 
Ishaq  Wali,  238 
Isma'il,  Shaykh.  367—8 
Jala.1  al-Din  Tabrizi,  280 
Jama.1  al-Din,  235-6 
Jumada  '1-Kubra,  381 
Khalifah  Husayn,  Shaykh.  382 
Khatib  Tungal,   395 
Khunmir  Husayni,   271 


INDEX 


463 


Missionaries,  Muslim  (continued): — 
Mahabir   Khamdayat,    271 
Malik  'Abd  al-Latif,  277 
Malik  b.  Dinar,  264-5 
Malik  b.  Hablb,  264-5 
Malik  Ibrahim,  378-9 
Mansur,  Shaykh,  388 
Minak  Kamala  Bumi,  371 
Muhammad  b.  'Abd  al-Karlm.  b. 

Muhammad   al-MajIH,    320 
Muhammad  b.  al-Huzayl,  74.  w.3 
Muhammad  'Ubayd  Allah,  284-5 
Muhammad      'Uthman     al-Amir 

Ghani.  327 
Mu'in  al-Din  Chishtl,  281 
Mulla.  'Ali,  275-6 
Mumba  Mulyaya,  270 
Mus'ab  b.  'Umayr,  15-16,  22-5 
Nasir  al-Haqq  Abu  Muhammad, 

210 
Nur  al-Din,  275 
Nur  al-Din  Ibrahim,  385 
Niir  Satagar,  275 
Pati  Putah,  389 
Rashid  al-Din,  236-7 
Sadr  al-Din,  274-5 
Sayyid  Ahmad  Kabir,  282 
Sayyid  'Ali  Hamadani,  292 
Sayyid  Isma'il,  280 
Sayyid  Jala.1  al-Din,  281-2 
Sayyid    Muhammad    b.    Sayyid 

'Ali,  271 
Sayyid    Muhammad    Gisudaraz, 

271 
Sayyid  Nathar  Shah,  267,  268 
Sayyid  Sadr  al-Din,  282 
Sayyid  Safdar  'Ali,  283 
Sayyid  Shah  Farid  al-DIn,  292 
Sayyid  'Umar  'Aydrus  Basheban, 

271 
Sayyid  Yiisuf  al-Din,  274 
Shah  al-Hamld,  267 
Shah  Muhammad  Sadiq  Sarmast 

Husaynl,  271 
Shams  al-Din,  Mir,  292 
Sharaf  b.  Malik,  264 
Sharif  Kabungsuwan,  399 
Sharif  Karim  al-Makhdum,  401 
Sidi  'Abd  al-'Aziz,  373 
Tufayl  b.  'Amr,  37-8 
'Umaru  Kaba,   321 
'Urwah  b.  Mas'ud,  38 
'Uthman   Danfodio,    323-5 
Wathilah  b.  al-Asqa',  40 
Yusuf  Shams  al-DIn,  270 
Missionaries,    Muslim,    from   Bagh- 
dad,   in    India,    271,    274;    from 
Bukhara,     in     India,     280,     281, 
among  the  Mongols,  228,  235-6, 
in  Siberia,  252;  from  Persia,   in 
India,  270,  280-2,  292.     See  also 


Merchants,  Prisoners,  Women, 
as  missionaries 
Missionary  activity,  Muslim,  char- 
acter of,  408-9;  enjoined  in  the 
Qur'an,  3-4,  409;  in  times  of 
political   weakness,    2,    144,    225, 

239,  397.  4°° 

Missionary  efforts,  unsuccessful 
Muslim,  in  Arabia,  34-5,  40;  in 
Africa,  325-6;  in  India,  266-7; 
in  Java,  378 ;  among  the  Mongols, 
240 ;  among  the  Papuans,  403 ; 
among  the  Russians,  242-3 

Missionary  religion,  defined,  1 

Missionary  Societies,  Muslim,  438-9 

Moluccas,  387-90 

Mongols,  conquests,  218-19,  225; 
converted  to  Christianity,  221; 
converted  to  Islam,  227-30, 
232-7,  in  China,  297  sq.,  in 
Georgia,  97-8 ;  persecute  the 
Muhammadans,  225-6,  234; 
primitive  religion,  220;  relations 
with  Christian  princes,  222,  229. 
See  also  Tatars 

Monotheletism,  53,  124 

Montenegro,  197-8 

Moral  superiority  of  Muslims,  in 
Abyssinia,  117;  in  Spain,  133; 
in  Turkey,  171 

Moriscoes,  143-4 

Morocco,  Christians  in,  126,  127  n. 3 

Moses  Maimonides,  421 

Mu'awiyah,  employed  Christians, 
63;  revenue  of  Egypt  in  reign 
of,  103 

Mubarak  Shah,  235 

Mughalistan,  238 

Muhammad,  n-43.  47~8 

Muhammad  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey, 
145-6,  176;  in  Bosnia,  198-9 

Muhammad  b.  al-Huzayl,  74  n.* 

Muhammad  b.  'AH  al-SanusI,  334 

Muhammad  b.  Qasim,  256  n.2,  272 

Muhammad  Khan,  Khan  of  Mugh- 
alistan, 237-8 

Muhammad  Khudabandah,  234 

Muhammad      Shah,      Sultan      of 

Malacca,  372~3-  4QI 
Muhammadan  martyrs,    14-15.   38, 

224 

Muhammadan  officials  and  soldurs 
of  Christian  governments,  as 
propagandists  of  Islam,  in  Africa, 
326,  333.  345-6,  362;  in  the 
Malay  Archipelago,  369,  399.  4° 7 

Muhammadans  observe  Christian 
rites,  in  Albania,  181,  187 

Muhammadans  under  Christian  rule 
in  Abyssinia,  114.  1I5.  H7-21- 
410;       Cape      Colony,       350"2  ~> 


464 


INDEX 


Crete,  201;  Egypt,  424,  438-9; 
German  East  Africa,  326,  345-6, 
361-2,  410;  Hungary,  193-4; 
India,  280,  282-91,  439;  Lagos, 
340 ;  Lithuania,  245 ;  Malay 
Archipelago,  369-70,  371-2,  387, 

393,  397-8,  399,  4°°-2,  405~7  \ 
Montenegro,  197-8;  Nigeria,  325, 

326;  Nubia,  no;  Russian  em- 
pire, 100,  101,  247-51,  252-3, 
411 ;  Spain,  140,  143-4 

Mukkuvans,  268 

Multan,  272,  273 

Muqtadir,  caliph,  75,  77,  422  n.% 

Murad  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  148-9 

Murshid  Quli  Khan,  278 

Mustadi,  caliph,  68 

Mu'tadid,  caliph,  64 

Mu'tasim,  caliph,  reign  of,  209,  214, 
272 ;  employs  Christian  officials, 
63 ;  sends  ambassadors  to  Nubia, 
109 

Mutawakkil,  caliph,  fanatical  meas- 
ures, 8,  75,  76-7,  420  n.1 ;  orders 
recently  constructed  churches  to 
be  destroyed,  66 

Mu'tazilites,  74-5,  77 

Mutesa,  king  of  Uganda,  438 

Muwallads,  in  Spain,  139 

Muzarabes,  137,  138 

Nafisah,  411 

Najm    al-DIn    Mukhtar    al-Zahidi, 

227  n.1 
Naqshbandiyyah  order,  239,  407  n2 
Nasik,  271,  284 

Nasr  b.  Harun,  Christian  official,  64 
Nestorian    Church,    under    Muslim 

rule,  68,  77,  80,  81-2,  86 
Nestorians     among    the    Mongols, 

221-2 
New  Guinea,  402-3 
Ni'mat  Allah,    Jacobite  Patriarch, 

86  n2 
Noanta,      Christians     of,     become 

Muslims,  168-9 
Nogais,  240 
Nubia,  109-13,  337 
Nubians  join  Amirghaniyyah  order, 

327 

Niir  al-DIn,  al-Khwarazmi.  mal- 
treated at  court  of  Kuyuk,  225-6 

Nyasaland,  346 

Onin,  peninsula  of  New  Guinea,  403 
Orghana,     wife     of     Qara-Hiilagu, 

234-5 
Ottoman     Turks,     administration, 
146-9;  conquests,  145,  171,  177, 
I92~3, 198-9,  201 ;  moral  qualities, 
169-71,   172;  oppression,   154-5; 


proselytising  zeal,  158,  159  n.1; 
taxation,  149-54 ;  toleration, 
155-8,  194-5 

Padris,  in  Sumatra,  369,  372 
Pahlavan,  saint  of  Khiva,  214 
Pajajaran,   kingdom  in  Java,   378, 

385-6 
Palembang,  371,  381,  391 
Panjab,  280-3,  286-7 
Papuans,  402-4 

Parlak,  kingdom  in  Sumatra,  367-8 
Paulician  heresy,  96,  161 
Pechenegs,  412 
Penukonda,  268 
Persecution      forbidden      in      the 

Qur'an,  5-6 
Persecution  of  Christians  by  Mus- 
lims,      75-9,       420  n.1 ;        Banu 

Tanukh,  50;  in  Albania,  183,  189; 

in  Armenia,  97  ;  in  Egypt,  106-7; 

in    Georgia,    98-100;    in    North 

Africa,    126;   in   Persia,    232;   in 

Samarqand,  224  ;  in  Spain,  142-3  ; 

in  Turkey,  150,  154 
Persecution  of  Christians  by  their 

co-religionists,    in    Bosnia,    168; 

in  Crete,  203  ;  in  Cyprus,  108  n.3; 

in   Egypt,    69,    102,    io6w.3;     in 

France,    136;   in  Hungary,    155; 

in  Persia,  68-9;  in  Russia,  156; 

in  Servia,   196;  in  Transylvania, 

155;  in  Turkey,  167 
Persecution    of    Muslims,    by    the 

Mongols,     225-6,     234;     by    the 

Russians,  247 
Persia,  heretical  movements  in  the 

Christian  Church  in,  69-70,  206, 

209 
Persia,  spread  of  Islam  in,  207-n, 

229  sq. 
Persian  convert,  first,  29 
Persians,    in    China,    297,    298 ;    in 

Indo-China,  376;  in  Sumatra,  364 
Peter,     Metropolitan     of     Russian 

Church,  241-2 
Philippine  Islands,  390,  399-402 
Philoxenos,  Jacobite  Bishop,  86 
Pilgrims  to  Mecca.     See  Hajis 
Pirana,  277 
Pirs,  as  missionaries,  in  India,  271, 

274-5,   277;  under  the  Mongols, 

239 
Poles,  Catholic,  under  Russian  rule, 

156 
Polish-speaking  Muslims,  3 
Ponnani,  269 
Pope  Gregory  II,  125 
Pope  Gregory  VII,  127,  130  n. 
Pope  Gregory  IX,  130  n.k 
Pope  Hadrian  I,  133  n.s,  136  n.3 


INDEX 


465 


D 


Pope  Innocent  III,  130  n.* 

Pope  Innocent  IV,  130  n.  4,  198  n.2, 
221 

Pope  John  XXII,  198,  242 

Pope  Leo  III,  139 

Pope  Leo  IX,  126 

Portuguese,  in  Abyssinia,  116;  on 
East  Coast  of  Africa,  340,  343  ;  in 
India,  266;  in  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago, 388,  389,  390,  393,  394 

Prayer,  Muslim  public,  impressive- 
ness  of,  417-19 

Prisoners,  Muslim,  as  Missionaries, 
411-12 

Pul.     See  Fulbe 

Qadir,  caliph,  86 

Qadiriyyah  order,  127,  328-9,  330, 

332,  333.  4°7  ^-2 
Qastiliyyah,  Christians  in,  129 
Quarquar,  Vaivode  of  Samstkheth, 

becomes  a  Muslim,  165  n.1 
Qubilay  Khan.  220,  225,  232,  298 
Queda,  373-5 
Qutaybah  b.  Muslim,  213,  295 

Raden  Husayn,  382-4 

Raden  Paku,  382-3 

Raden  Patah,  380,  382-3 

Raden  Rahmat,  380-3 

Rainaud,  88 

Rajputs,  converted  to  Islam,  259, 
260,  281 ;  Muhammadan  in- 
fluences among,  289 

Ras  'All,  vice-regent  of  Abyssinia, 
118-19 

Rationalism  in  Islam,  73-4 

Ravuttans,  267 

Raymund  III,  Count  of  Tripoli,  91 

Religious  orders,  influence  of  the, 

239,  326-35,  4°8 
Ricoldus  de  Monte  Crucis,  on  the 

virtues  of  the  Saracens,  425 
Robert  of  St.  Albans,  91 
Rubruck,   William  of,   embassy  to 

Mongol  Khaqan,  222 
Rumanians,  Southern,  62,  168-9 
Russia,  Mongols  in,  239  sqq.     See 

also  Tatars 
Russian  rule,  Muslims  under,   101, 

246-53 
Russians  under  Muslim  rule,  240-4 
Rustam,  first    Muhammadan    king 

of  Karthli,  99 

Sa'd  b.  Abi  Waqqas,  13 

Sa'd  b.  Mu'adh,  conversion  of,  23-4 

Sadr    al-DIn,     first    Muhammadan 

king  of  Kashmir,  292 
Saffah,  caliph,  104 


Sa'id  b.  Hasan,  on  Muslim  public 
prayer,  417-8 

Saifa  Ar'ad,  king  of  Abyssinia,  1 1 4 

St.  Augustine,  on  motives  of  con- 
version to  Christianity,  423 

St.  John  of  Damascus,  83 

St.  Louis,  crusade  of,  88,  92  ;  em- 
bassy to  the  Mongol  Khaqan,  112  ; 
receives  Mongol  embassy,  229;  on 
the  treatment  of  infidels,  8 

Saints,  Muslim,  worshipped  by 
Hindus,  289  n.3 

Saladin,  and  the  Crusaders,  90-1, 
425  ;  Christians  in  Egypt,  under 
rule  of,  107,  421 

Salawatti,  island,  403 

Salim  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  423 

Saljuq  Turks,  88,  96,  216 

Salman,  the  first  Persian  convert,  20 

Salmuyah,  Christian,  in  service  of 
the  caliph  al-Mu'tasim,  63 

Saman  becomes  Muslim,  210 

Samarqand,  Chinese  embassy  in 
299;  Chinese  workmen  in, 297  ».* 
introduction  of  Islam,  213,  214 
under  the  Mongols,  223-4 

Sambawa,   398 

Samory,  331,  332  w.3,  333 

Samsams,  376 

Samudra,  364,  367,  368 

Samudu,  331-2 

Saniisiyyah  order,  in  Africa,  334- 
5,  410;  in  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
407 

Sasaks,  in  Lombok,  39S-9 

Sasanid  dynasty,  Christian  Church, 
under,  68-9,  206-7 

Satuq  Bughra  Khan,  215-16 

Sawo-Teheno,  king  of  Kafa,  be- 
comes a  Muhammadan,  120 

Sayyid  'All  Akbar,  Muhammadan 
merchant  in  Peking,  302,  311  k.1 

Sayyid  Ajall,  297-8 

Sayyid  Ashraf  al-DIn,  223-4 

Sayyid  Sulayman,  Chinese  Muslim, 

307.  3°9,  311 

Scanderbeg,  177 

Sciataraccio,  tax,  182,  189 

Scutari,  184 

Senegal,  315,  330,  333 

Sennaar,  no,  113,  337 

Servia,  192-7 

Shafi'iyyah  sect,  in  Malay  Archi- 
pelago, 364 

Shah  Rukh  Bahadur,  266,  299 

Shamanism,  220,  240.  246 

Shanars,  become  Muslims,  289 

Sharif  al-Rida,  210 

Shaykh  Jalai  al-DIn  Tabriz!,  282 

Shaykh  Yusuf,  350  n.6 

Shi'ahs,   in  Africa,    341;   in   India, 


466 


INDEX 


274-6;  in  Kashmir,  292;  in  Java 
and  Sumatra,  364 ;  in  Persia,  209, 
211,  in  Turkey,  423 

Shihab  family,  in  Mount  Lebanon, 
176-7 

Siam,  Islam  in,  376 

Siberia,  251-3 

Sierra  Leone,  338 

Silhat,  282 

Sind,  272-5 

Sindan,  272 

Slavery,  under  the  Muslims,  416— 
17;  under  the  Turks,  172-6 

Slave-trade,  suppression  of,  facili- 
tates spread  of  Islam,  345-6 

Slave-traders,  not  propagandists  of 
Islam,  343-4 

Soba,  mosque  built  in,  no 

Sokoto,  325 

Somalis,  349-50 

Songhay  kingdom,  318,  321 

Sophronius,  Metropolitan  of  Athens, 
164 

Spain,  Islam  in,  131-44 

Spaniards,  in  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
387,  388,  390,  400-1,  402 

Spanish  Muslims,  missionary  ac- 
tivity of,  127 

Sudan,  3I7"37»  353~62 

Suhayb,  the  first-fruits  of  Greece, 
26,  29 

Sukadana,  kingdom  in  Borneo,  391 

Sulu  Islands,  401-2 

Sumatra,  364,  366-72 

Survivals  of  Christian  usages 
among  Muhammadans,  129  n.2, 
181,  187,  197 

Swahilis,  as  propagandists  of  Islam, 

345 
Sword   of   Islam,    5,    8,    46,    85  n.*, 

256,  405 

Tabaristan,  210 

Ta'if,  19,  38 

Takudar,  first  Muslim  Ilkhan.  229- 

32,  238-9 
Tallo,  in  Celebes,  395 
T'ang  dynasty,  294,  297 
Tarmashirin  Khan.  235,  239 
Tartars.     See  Tatars 
Tatars,    in    Lithuania,    3,    245;    in 

Russia,       244-5,       247-51;       in 

Siberia,  251-3 
Ternate,  388—90 
Theodisclus,  Archbishop  of  Seville, 

adopts  Islam,  134 
Theodore  Abu  Qurrah,  84 
Theodore,  Nestorian  Bishop,  86 
Tibesti,  335 
Tibet,  293 
Tidor,  388 


Tijaniyyah     order,     325,     328-30, 

333 
Tilok  Chand,  259-60 

Timbuktu,  31S-19,  328 

Timotheus,     Nestorian     Patriarch, 

67,  84 
Timur,  256,  292 
Tinnevelli,  288 

Tipu  Sultan,  8,  254,  261-2,  268 
Tiyans,  268 
Toleration  enjoined  upon  Muslims, 

5-6,  77  w.6,  420 
Toleration  towards  the  Christians  in 

Egypt,   102-3;  m  Khurasan.   82; 

in  North  Africa,  130;  in  Russia, 

241-2;  in  Spain,   135,   143-4;  in 

Syria   and    Palestine,    56-7,    95 ; 

in  Turkey,   146-7,   156-7,   178-9, 

191 
Tosks  in  Southern  Albania,  192 
Traders,  Muslim.     See  Merchants 
Tribute  of  Christian  children,  150-2, 

155 

Trichinopoly,  267,  268 

Tubu,  410 

Tunis,  129-30 

Tuqluq  Timur  Khan,  king  of  Kash- 
gar,  235-7 

Turkistan,  215,  216 

Turks,  converted  to  Islam,  214-16; 
in  China,  297,  298,  304,  310;  in 
the  Mongol  armies,  226  n.3.  See 
also  Ottoman  Turks,  Saljuq 
Turks 

Uch,  281 

Uganda,  344 

Uljaytu,  234 

'Umar  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz,  and  Egypt, 
103;  and  North  Africa,  314; 
and  Sind,  272  ;  and  Transoxania, 
214  ;  orders  recently-constructed 
churches  to  be  destroyed,  66; 
prayed  for  by  Christian  historian, 
424;  revenue  of  Egypt,  in  reign 
of,  103;  zeal  for  Islam,  82-3 

'Umar  b.  al-Khattab.  and  the  Banu 
Taghlib,  49 ;  conversion  of,  1 7 ; 
ordinance  of,  57-8,  76;  and  the 
propagation  of  Islam,  51,  81, 
82-3 ;   submission   of   Jerusalem, 

56-7 
'Umar  b.  Yusuf,  Christian  governor 

of  Anbar,  64 
'Umar  Shams  al-Din.     See  Sayyid 

A  jail 
Urkhan,  149,  150 
Usama  b.  Munqidh,  90 
Usambara,  346 

Usayd  b.  Hudayr,  conversion  of,  23 
'Usayfan,  273 


INDEX 


467 


'Uthman,  conversion,  13;  relations 
with    China,     295 ;     revenue    of 
_  Egypt,  in  reign  of,  103 
Uzbek  Khan,  240-2 
Uzbeks,  240 

Venetians,    in    Albania,    188-9;    in 
Crete,  201-3;  in  the  Levant,  147 
Vilno,  Muslims  in,  3 
Vladimir,  242-4 
Votiaks,  249 

Wadai,  322,  335,  355 

Wahhabi  reformation,  influence  of, 

426 ;  in  Africa,   323 ;  in  Bengal, 

280;  in  Sumatra,  372 
Waigama,  island,  402 
Waigyu,  island,  402 
Wakhtang  VI,  king  of  Georgia,  100 
Walid,  caliph,  66 


Women,    Muslim,  as    missionai 
120,  234  n.1,  410-n 

Ya'qub  b.  Layth,  217 
Yarkand,  238 
Yathrib.     See  Medina 
Yazdanbakht,  85 
Yazid  II,  caliph,  66-7 
Yoruba  country,  325 
Yung  Chen,  edict  of,  303 
Yunnan,  293,  298 

Zamorin  of  Calicut,  265-6 

Zanj,  Islam  among  the,  342-3 

Zanzibar,  342 

Zayla',  349 

Zayn  al-'Abidin,  first  Muhammadan 

king  of  Batj an,  403  n.1 
Zmaievich,  in  Albania,  185-91. 
Zoroastrians,  206-11 


Richard  Clay  &  Sons,  Limited, 

brunswick  street,  stamford  street,  s.e., 

and  bungay,  suffolk. 


1 


■ff 


Date  Due 


nDft 


.^jiilSPww 


diili 


_ 


1     1    V 


^ 


■ 


,  . .  ,      . ,  1 


V.      %         :< 


BP50.A75  1913 
™epreach,„g  ons^a 

1^!r.I?~'»,ca,Ser3:y.s?eerL|;rary 


•  ■  ■  t 

% 

I 

'•■^\  '    ■»•" 

xfi  r 

Ml  r  Br- 

ft!  fK 

: 

5ttH !  i  Hfr-4 

[  I   ' 

>;v;|  5 

BK ,  I 

• 

HD  ) 

'' ■ 

Kmu  Hn" 

1 

1  i 

v,A  ,     ^* 

■ 

i*  m!  Br>^" ' 

1 

''■*'  i 

■ 

HH  | 

. 

L  ""' 

^H  J 

.' 

! 

^■r"' 

W*-^->     I 

B  kt: 

K»5  J    Br^' 

■  |  > 

- 

BW 

K)7,.  1 

'X^1;    H 

■ 

